


RWBY: The DAWN

by Dalastjedi



Series: RWBY: DAWN Till Dusk [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: "Magic", Continuous Timeline, Dark Cults, Dawn - Freeform, Deep Lore, F/F, F/M, Half-Grimm, Heterosexuality, Lightning straying from the thunder, Mercenaries, Miracles of Ancient Wonder, OC Team, Origin Stories, Original Character(s), Original Ideas, Other, Prequel, Prophecy, Schnees, Sometimes actual homosexuality, Warlocks, White Fang, implied homosexuality, prequel story
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-25
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2018-11-18 21:50:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 36,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11299539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dalastjedi/pseuds/Dalastjedi
Summary: A generation before the events of RWBY, a prodigy, a hunter of Huntsmen, a Son of Darkness and an unforseen ally will be forced together to stop a mad cult from unleashing an ancient evil on Remnant that threatens to destroy everything Humanity has worked towards. Rated T for coarse language and violence.





	1. Prologue 1: Purity Destroyed

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Neither the Editorial nor I own RWBY or any related products. All rights to RWBY goes to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum.
> 
> Hi everyone! Before we jump into what should be a fantastic new adventure, I'd like to bring to attention the fact that this story, and the ones that'll slowly trickle onto this site along with it, can be (partially) found on Tumblr. The Tumblr page for this story is https://www.tumblr.com/blog/the-mstt-of-dawn , and the rest of it can be found on FF.net.
> 
> Now, I can't really think of anything else to say, since it's the start of the story and all, but just to clarify; this all takes place a generation before the events of Team RWBY, which means it's all around the time Team STRQ was probably in RWBY's place in Vol 1, just to clarify.

Making his final checks on his inventory, Drake de Alexander Venari prepared himself for the mission ahead. He had received a mission to rescue a girl being held by an amateur group of kidnappers now demanding money from her parents.

_Ransoms…Never the most efficient crime, and never the most successful._

Drake didn't really even think it was worth his time, but the payment was high, so he was going to get the job done. It helped considering the girl's parents were rich noblemen that owned a large area of land, but after this was all said and done, he was going to go back to more…important matters.

_He could practically feel the sound of the door being bashed into. His father, taking up a defensive position, held an arm out to tell him and his mother to stay back._

Drake blinked the memory away, cursing himself under his breath for not checking whether he had enough medicine to deal with the Recall Syndrome. Ever since the incident four years ago, he has been haunted by the vivid memories provoked out of the recesses of his mind.

Checking his outfit one more time, he stalked out of the shadows of an alley and onto the near-deserted streets of south Vale. This was the part of the city where people were either too poor or too rich; making it clear that it wasn't as safe as it should be out after dark. To the few onlookers he passed, he didn't seem like the type of person that should be troubled.

Under the streetlight, Drake wore a worn, black set of robes and pants, along with thick leather black boots. Leather and Velcro straps adorned his body, holding dust-infused throwing knives, as well as a halberd strapped to his back. Along his waist, Drake wore a belt on which two bulky revolver-like weapons that had blades that reached from the hilt of the weapon to the bottom of the end of the barrel, as well as several pouches that held his spare ammunition.

Drake didn't enjoy being under observation as he worked, so while he could, he clung to the shadows of the alleys for the next two blocks to the tall office building. This was where he was told by a "friend" of the kidnappers where they had taken the girl. Arriving outside it, he stopped to marvel at the construction, half-worn from use and half-still a bright light among hundreds across Vale. After he spent less than ten seconds admiring the building, he pulled off the deep-red metal mask that hung on his belt and pressed it to his face. A second after he did so, he could feel the bits of metal concealed behind his cowl snap forth to form attachments to the mask itself, holding it in place as the inside lit up with a Heads-Up-Display. Wearing the mask, he was no longer Drake. This was his business face, and his business name was Sabre

' _I hope you know what you're asking for by signing up for this lifestyle.' His mentor had told him._

_Yes, and I'm ready._

Shaking the fragments of the memory away, Sabre found himself agreeing with Drake yet disagreeing with the decision he made all those years ago. Yes, he had been ready for this lifestyle, just not to its fullest extent. Sneaking by the night-guard on duty, he passed through the sliding glass double doors of the building. Sabre was met with no resistance, and immediately began searching for the elevator.

_I'm not walking up…twenty flights of stairs._ He thought to himself as the "friend" had the generosity to tell him which floor they operated on. It made sense though, this building was only being half used. All the floors between the roof and the fifth floor were unoccupied and empty, giving whoever could enter the building at this time access to seven floors of hiding space.

He snuck by another guard as he found where the elevators were built, only to find them guarded by two more guards. Thankfully, they didn't look too physically fit and had drowsy expressions on their faces.

He walked around the corner of the pillar he was hiding behind before walking up to the two guards. One of the tensed up before he drew his companion's attention towards Sabre.

'H-hey! You can't be here.' One of them said, while the other pulled out a baton in anticipation.

Sabre said nothing as he continued to approach them, flexing his fists encased in his leather gloves before taking off in a burst of speed straight towards the guard with the baton. He immediately struck the man in the joints in his weapon arm before twisting his wrist, causing him to drop his baton.

The other guard came up behind him with a taser, causing him to let the first guard go to use both of his hands to grab onto the arm that held the taser. The two tussled for a few moments before Sabre was able to take a kick in the man's left knee, causing him to buckle slightly, which gave Sabre the height he needed to strike the man in the head, knocking him unconscious.

Taking the taser from him as the man collapsed, he quickly turned to face the second guard, who had gotten back to his feet and was preparing to take a swing at him with the baton. He twisted around and fired the taser at the guard. The two prongs hit the man in the shoulder, and in a few moments, he was a twitching, paralyzed, unconscious body on the floor.

Content with his work, and assuming that by the time the other guards found out what had happened that he would be done, Sabre stepped into the elevator and hit the button for the tenth floor. Standing in the white-washed elevator, he felt reality start to slowly crack in his vision. He leaned on the walls of the elevator for support as random memories flooded his mind.

_You might have to get mixed up with innocent lives._ He remembered his mentor tell him. _And when that happens…_

_I'll know what to do._ He replied, earning a smile from the battle-worn man who gave him a pat on the shoulder.

Next came the memory of his first kill. His first Human kill. It was when those men had barged in through his front door. He quickly scrambled for cover behind a wall, the twelve year old boy he was, panicking and cracking under a situation like that.

His father had rushed to confront the men, while his mother moved to protect him, reaching for her own weapon. The sound of gunshots rang through the corridors of the house as Drake and his mother made a push for the back door. She stopped before a cupboard to find something, and that was when the man appeared. Drake never found out his name, but as he approached his mother with his gun raised, Drake did the only thing he could think of. He tackled the man square in the chest, as he did not notice the boy. They both fell to the floor, but because the man had absorbed the bulk of the fall, Drake scrambled for his weapon and fired off four shots into the man's chest.

With the sounds of the shots echoing in his mind, Sabre returned to the current situation. He turned his head to look at the panel which indicated what floor he was on, just as the elevator stopped on the tenth floor.

Sabre's hands went for his halberd, The Nightingale, as he slung it off his back as the doors to the elevator opened. Meeting with no resistance, he proceeded to sweep the tenth floor for the girl. It didn't take long before Sabre's mask began to pick up voices from one of the office rooms. As Sabre approached, he noticed that this was the only room that was illuminated-though faint. Preparing to enter the room, he pressed his back against the plaster wall and flipped open the iron-sight on top of the halberd.

Keeping himself as close to the wall as he could, Sabre peered around the corner of the opened doorway to see how many enemies he was dealing with. The mask quickly marked six, well-armed men as Sabre took a quick peer around the corner. He also saw the girl, who was bound by her hands and feet to a chair with a gag over her mouth. She had platinum-blonde hair and wore a silver-coloured shirt with the word "YOLO" on it, as well as a pair of grey jeans. She looked to be about the same age as Sabre, which wasn't much considering that he was only sixteen years old. That alone was enough to raise eyebrows at the efficiency of a sixteen year old in his line of work, which is why he chose to wear the mask.

The room was quite large, albeit having been stripped of its contents aside from the chair in the center of the room. Seeing no other way to approach the situation, he pulled out a small canister from a pouch on his belt and pressed the button on top of it. The light began blinking as he threw it through the doorway. It hit the ground twice before exploding in a bright light.

Sabre quickly moved through the doorway, one hand on the end of his halberd, while the other rested on the bolt-action mechanism of the halberd. He fired on one stunned man at the end of the room, the round bouncing off his head but sending him to the ground before he fired a second round that penetrated his skull.

Pulling back on the mechanism, Sabre swung his weapon at a man on his left, rubbing the flash of the flashbang out of his eyes. The blow from the curved, axe-like blade knocked the man unconscious as Sabre turned his attention to the others. He swung at another man to his right, who had enough instinct returned to him to raise his sword to block the strike. It was a weak attempt as Sabre quickly jabbed forward with his weapon to get around the sword. However, Sabre used the other end of the halberd, which had a V-shaped blade, to pin the man to the wall.

The other's in the room had regained their senses and drew their rifles on him, but Sabre quickly pushed back his robes to reveal the two large guns he wore, The Ursa's Claws. Drawing them faster than the men could load their weapons, Sabre fired two shots into two of the men's chests, splattering blood on the walls.

As the last man opened up on him with his rifle, Sabre pulled back one of his hands to throw one of the guns at the man. The large, curved blade at the base of the gun pinned the man to the wall as he walked up to him and put the blade of the other Claw against his neck. His eyes screamed defiance one last time as he slit the man's throat, blood gushing out of the open wound.

Checking that he had incapacitated everyone, he moved over to a chair, where a single, wide lamp cast light down on the girl. She still looked dazed from the flash, but she was recovering as Sabre approached. She looked on with fear, muffled sounds coming from the gag as Sabre pulled out one of his throwing knives, tossing it between his hands, he stood inches from the girl before he brought the knife down, and cut her bindings.

After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and removed the gag as Sabre retrieved his halberd, the man pinned under it collapsing to the floor with a large intake of breath.

'God, you scared me!' the girl remarked, rubbing her sore wrists. 'Did my father send you?'

'That depends, are you Nicole Lunas?' he asked, pulling out a few rounds out of his pouches to replace the ones he used. His voice came out distorted, thanks to a distortion mechanism built into the mask.

'Yeah. Yeah, that's me.' She said, gaining more confidence with every breath. 'Who wants to know?'

'The man your father sent.' Sabre simply replied, turning his head to one of the men he previously thought unconscious, who was now talking into a communicator.

Without batting an eye, Sabre flicked the throwing knife still in his hand at the man, hitting him in the neck and causing him to fall to the floor.

He turned back to the girl who winced at the sight. 'You're not a Hunter, are you?'

'No, I'm not.' He replied, his vision shattering back to the moment he found out that his uncle was going to enroll him into an academy that would complete his Hunter training. He had been…less than excited.

Coming back to the moment, while trying to not give it away to the girl, he refocused on her once more. 'We need to leave, now!'

He crouched down over one of the unconscious men and took his pistol. 'Right, jolly good.' She said with a smile.

Sabre walked over to her and took the gun from her hands. 'No weapons.' He stated.

She frowned and formed her lips into a pout, though it did nothing for him. 'Then what am I supposed to do if they attack me?'

'You don't get attacked.' He said, not turning around a second time as he walked over to the elevator, stopping when he saw the panel indicating that the elevator had reached the fifth floor and was still ascending.

Turning around, he began searching for the emergency staircase. 'Change of plans. Head to the roof!'

After kicking open two office room doors, Sabre found the staircase after Nicole pointed out the sign that identified it. Making a mental note about the setback, Sabre sprinted up the staircase, reaching the roof under half a minute. Trying the door that would open out to the roof, but finding it jammed, he took a few steps back to take a running start against it. It flew open, allowing a gust of the nighttime air to blow over him.

Not wasting any time, he began thinking of ways that they could make it off the roof without dying as soon as he saw the girl pass through the doorway, panting slightly. 'You're pretty fast, has anyone told you?' she commented as he walked back to the door. Closing it, he pulled out a vial of Ice Dust and coated his glove with it. He ran his hand along the door, creating a layer of ice that would hold the door in place for a while.

'How are we supposed to get down from here?' Nicole asked, somewhat skeptical. Sabre only turned back to her after he heard the faint sounds of footsteps approaching.

'We'll have to jump.' He concluded, looking over the edge.

'Jump? Oh, no. No no no!' she shouted, with a look of shock and fear.

'Do you have a better option?' Sabre asked, pressing a button on the side of his mask to calculate the distance from where he was to the bottom, as well as pulling up a map to break away from their pursuers.

'Yes, I can create a rope.' She said, flicking her hand and creating a long, glowing rope of pure Aura. 'If we can secure it somewhere, we can shimmy off the side of the-' she was interrupted by the sounds of something bashing against the door.

'Do us both a favor and do as I say.' He said, a little more affirmative this time, which she responded to with a nod.

Taking three steps back, Sabre tackled the girl, much to her protests at first, over the edge of the roof. For the first two seconds of their descent, the girl screamed in fear, which eventually turned into cries of excitement and joy.

Two floors from the ground, Sabre positioned himself underneath the girl and formed a maroon-colored, translucent shield underneath him. They hit the grounds seconds later, cracking it, while remaining unscathed. He quickly pushed the girl off him and stood at attention. Performing a quick sweep of the area and making sure there were no enemies around, he turned to the girl to see if she had been injured on the fall.

Standing over her and offering her a hand up, Sabre watched as her breathing slowed down, and as she quickly beamed at him. 'That. Was awesome!' she shouted, taking his hand.

_She's got guts, I'll give her that._ He thought with the ghost of a grin on his face, concealed by the mask.

As she continued to babble about surviving the fall, Sabre quickly analyzed the map in his field of vision to find the most discreet and elusive path to his rendezvous.

Grabbing the girl's wrist, he led her down an alley, but not before he heard the shouts of one of the security guards that patrolled the grounds of the office building. She tried to keep up with his pace, reluctant at first, but giving in as the man's grip would not loosen. Barely slipping into the shadows of the alley, Sabre heard the echo of a bullet hitting one of the brick walls that made up the alley, telling him that they would be right behind them.

'So,' she began, trying to break the tense atmosphere. 'What's your name?'

'Sabre.' He said, before taking a left down into a narrower sub-alley, paying no mind to the vagabonds and beggars that lay in the streets, as he knew they would think twice at attacking a man as armed as him. Even thoughts of harassing the girl were quickly snuffed as they saw that she was in his grasp.

Nicole scoffed. 'That's not your actual name, is it?' she asked as she was jerked out of the alley.

'No.' he replied, dragging her along the sidewalk, though she had become less resistant to being dragged along by the wrist and was even keeping up with Sabre's pace.

'Where are we going?' she asked, as they crossed the street into another alley with a wire fence that blocked their path.

'To a rendezvous where I'll hand you over to a contact who works for your parents.' He explained. 'Get climbing.'

Grumbling something that Sabre couldn't hear, the girl nimbly scaled the fence in seconds, which was impressive for an aristocrat in Sabre's mind. 'Come on, slowpoke.' She said while tapping her foot. 'I haven't got all day and those guys are going to catch up.'

Sabre quickly jumped up and vaulted over the fence before continuing at a brisk pace, Nicole trailing alongside.

'So, are you just going to not talk to me the entire time until we meet up with your contact? I mean, thanks for the rescue and all, but all I'm saying is that you're not the most talkative bloke, are you?' she continued her rambles until they made a right in the alley to appear on another street, only this time, there was a matt black car speeding their way down a road.

'Is that-' her question was left unanswered as a man stuck his hand out of the car and began shooting at Sabre. He quickly held out his hand to form another rectangular ward in front of him as he walked out onto the street in front of the car.

Reaching for one of his knives, he grasped it for a few moments, feeling the weight in his hand before throwing it at the hood of the car. The knife stuck to the car, but this time it was missing the ring-shaped end that had dislodged when Sabre threw it.

As the car drove around him to try to get closer to the girl, who had run back into the alley, it swiveled with an ear-piercing screech for a split second before the front of the car exploded in a ball of fire.

He washed as the burnt-out car slowed to a stop a less than two meters away before he turned back to the girl, her eyes wide in awe and her mouth hanging open.

'Now that!' she shouted, pointing at the car. 'That was awesome!'

'Let's go.' He said in a monotone voice, though he was secretly pleased at the praise from the girl. They walked past the wreckage of the car down the street with Sabre leading the way, but not before he slowed down momentarily to draw one of his Claws and firing it at the four men trapped in the car.

Not wanting to waste more than four shots, he continued walking without checking whether the shots had killed all four men or not. Glancing over at the girl to see her reaction, he saw an expression he discerned to be admiration or inspiration. _Funny, I thought she'd be disgusted._

But it was not an admiration to the deed, it was an admiration towards him. Towards Sabre.


	2. Prologue 2: Kind Hearted

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a young boy loses everything he has ever known, will a kind soul be able to guide him onto the right path?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own any major part of RWBY or Rooster Teeth. All rights and reserves go to their respective owners and Monty Oum.

_Inhale…exhale…inhale…exhale…_

Abraham always found that breathing exercises helped right before a test, and this was no exception.

The morning sun shone down on the clearing in the Emerald Forest, reflecting off different specks of water that still hadn't evaporated since the downpour last night. The blonde had been worried – initially – that the rain last night might have made Professor Ozpin want to cancel his test today, but the bad weather didn't seem to bother the professor at all.

More than anything, Abraham Linkin wanted to show how much he had learned from his time at Beacon and how far he had come since he arrived five years ago. He wanted to prove to everyone at the school that he was worth keeping around, especially Ozpin.

After all, Ozpin was the one who saved his life all those years ago.

Even to this day, Abraham still vividly remembered the day his village fell to the creatures of Grimm, still remembered his parents telling him to run towards the distant green light in the dark and to look for the man with grey hair and a cane, still remembered his father placing his black top hat on Abraham's head and telling him that it would protect him from the monsters. He had been petrified with fear that day, unable to scream, fight or even run. Eventually, it was his mother's violent shove as a Deathstalker had crushed her that got his legs to start working again.

…he still remembered the warmth of his mother's hug...the warmth of his father's blood.

The dirty-blonde boy had spent days travelling through the dense, Grimm filled woods with nothing but his father's weapon – a meter-long woodcutter's axe that also served as a shotgun to defend himself. His clothes were in tatters and brown from stumbling and sleeping in the dirt, having lost their hunter-green colour. Even the white thread of the necklace he wore around his neck that housed a silver ring had become tarnished. At night, the smooth wood of the Nightwither was his comfort blanket as he nodded off to sleep, wary of any sound.

By day and by night, he was tormented by menacing growls and snarls from the tree-line and from creatures he could just barely see. It was almost too much for him – driving him to the point of near-madness, where he would swing the axe at almost any sound, which was no simple feat as the weapon was as big as him. However, something – or rather someone – kept him from the descent into madness. A young but rough voice in his head always helped point him in the direction of the green light whenever he was lost. After hearing the voice for the third time, Abraham began to trust it as it was never wrong. Either way, he was too tired and too desperate to deny its help.

After three days of endlessly travelling towards the distant green light, Abraham could finally see the source of the light, making it out to clearly be a large clocktower-like structure on top of a sheer cliff. The climb up the tremendous cliff was the only thing that separated him from safety.

Or so he thought.

Careless of his surroundings, Abraham tripped over a thick, black root that stuck out the ground, and in doing so awoke the large, dormant Grimm Dark-Bough. The Dark-Bough was shaped to look like a thick dead and rotting tree that preyed on sleeping travellers that chose to take rest near it. This made it a nocturnal Grimm, unless somebody woke it up. Large black roots tore up from the dirt and supported a large black tree-trunk as several blood-red eyes opened across its surface and it let out a low howl.

Exhausted from his travels and starving, Abraham knew he could neither fight the creature nor run away from it. That is, he could not fight it alone.

A root came crashing down on his position as he rolled to the side before getting back up again to hack it apart. When he successfully severed the root, the separated end disappeared into a cloud of black vapour.

_To your right!_ He heard the same voice tell him in his mind, snapping him back to the adrenaline-fueled fight he was going through at the moment. Without thinking, he dashed to his right and narrowly avoided the sweep of another root.

_Drop down!_ It told him, and so he did, narrowly avoiding an overhead sweep. However, the blonde didn't feel like he could continue dodging the creature's attacks for much longer. Lying with his back on the ground, the Dark-Bough seemed to be able to sense it as well as it slowly settled on either side of him. Abraham's breathing rose and hitched as it stretched one of its long branches down to grab him.

Abraham held the axe over him and closed his eyes, waiting for the moment when the branch would strike and end his life.

That moment never came.

Instead, he heard the sound of wood snapping and opened his eyes to see that a raven had struck the branch that was reaching down to grab him, breaking it apart.

_I will distract the branches, you attack its roots!_ He heard the raven speak to him in the same voice as the one which had been directing him about the forest.

Without questioning, he got back to his feet. Seeing now that the Grimm's attention was split between him and the raven, he got to work at severing the various roots of the creature, which was harder than it sounded as they were constantly thrashing about in an attempt to crush him.

On top of that, Abraham had to work quickly as the Grimm's wounds would quickly close up if he did not cleanly cut the limb off. After hacking through the fifth root, something clicked inside of him. The more he fought the more natural the motions felt, like the fighter he was now was inside of him all along.

That was when Abraham first discovered his Semblance. With a burst of conviction and will, the Nightwither glowed a dark-silver in his hands as he sprinted faster than he ever had before straight towards the screaming Dark-Bough. With one well-placed swipe of the axe, the bark of the tree-like Grimm split apart almost completely.

The creature crashed onto itself as it slowly began evaporating while Abraham slumped to the ground, more exhausted than he had ever been before as the raven landed on top of his top hat.

_Are you alright?_ It asked him, concern in its voice.

'Y-yes.' He managed in between breaths. 'How do you…know how…to speak?'

_I do not._ The bird replied as it flapped its wings.  _But I was drawn to your Spirit while you stumbled about in the forest. I could sense that you were in dire need, so I have been guiding you on your journey._

'You were the voice…telling me which way to get to the green light!' Abraham suddenly realised as he took off the hat to rest at his side.

_Yes. I did not wish to make my presence known, but decided to intervene when you fought that horrendous creature._

'Um…do you have a name?'

There was a pause in the mental connection the two shared before the raven flapped its wings once.  _I do not believe my name translates very well, but in your Human tongue it would be, Doombeak._

'Doombeak?' Abraham asked with a weak chuckle. 'That's a weird name.'

Before Doombeak had a chance to reply, their attentions were both drawn by a low growling sound. Abraham turned with frightful eyes to see a stag-like Grimm standing several meters away from them. The creature was scrapping its hooves on the ground, getting ready to charge.

The blonde boy turned to Doombeak with a pleading look in his eyes. He was far too tired to fight again as he couldn't even feel his legs. The raven understood his plight and flew straight at the Grimm, trying its best to draw its attention away by pecking and scratching at it.

This only served to annoy the Grimm as it charged at Abraham, lowering its large, sharp antlers in preparation to skewer the boy.

However, barely a meter away from him, an elderly man jumped out of the treeline and caused the Grimm to stagger by sticking his cane in its antlers and changing its charge path. The creature tripped over something before toppling to the ground right before the man struck it straight through the neck with his cane.

All this happened just a meter in front of Abraham, and the poor boy was breathing heavily from the shock of all of it. Stepping over the disintegrating corpse, the man – who Abraham could now see had completely grey hair – approached the blonde before kneeling in front of him.

'Are you alright?' he asked in a gentle voice before slowly reaching out a hand. Abraham's first reaction was to flinch away from the hand, but slowly leaned forward into the touch as he saw that the man only wanted to examine the injuries on his face.

'That was quite a fight you were just in.' the man spoke as he tilted Abraham's face left and right. 'And you have quite a unique ability.'

'A-are you a doctor?' he asked when the gentle touch of the man's hand left his face.

'Of sorts.' The older man said with a light chuckle. 'Come with me. I will take care of you.' He said as he extended his hand for Abraham to take.

The boy only hesitated for a second out of the paranoid nature he had developed during his time in the forest before he reached out and was helped to his feet. After that, the man walked him back towards the cliff while saying something about getting him some new clothes and something to eat.

That was the first time he had met Professor Ozpin, but that was also five years ago.

Now he stood in the Emerald Forest he had wandered into all those years ago, clad in a silver-grey cotton shirt under a black trench coat with black trousers and ankle-high boots. He still wore his father's top hat and carried the Nightwither, but he also had a few new tricks.

'Abraham?' Ozpin's voice broke him out of his reminiscing as he tapped on the earpiece he was wearing.

'Yes, sir?'

'The timer has started already.'

'Oh, sorry sir.' Abraham suddenly kicked his legs into high gear and sprinted through the forest in search of his target.

'Now remember, Abraham your target is wearing a red cloth over its forearm. We'll be watching you from the hidden cameras and Huntsmen sent to oversee your test.'

'Of course.' He replied before cutting communications in favour of reaching for NIghtwither, which was slung over his back. Along the way, he ran by a pair Beowulf which he quickly dispatched with a single swipe and a shotgun blast straight into the other's face.

This was a good sign as it meant that he was getting closer to the rest of the pack. However – as Abraham had come to learn, it never hurt to be extra sure.

While his silver eyes scanned the forests, he focussed a part of his mind on the mental bond he had established long ago.  _Doombeak, do you see it?_

_Yes._ Came the quick reply.  _And it's moving further away from you._

_Brilliant. I love a good hunt._ He sent back. After spending enough time with the bird, Abraham had mastered the art of communicating with his companion via the telepathic bond they both shared, though it took a lot of patience and concentration.  _Which way?_

_Continue in your path._ He heard as he looked up at the sky to just see Doombeak flying overhead. With a silent nod, he cut the connection and kept sprinting until a group of Creeps popped out of the ground. The blonde knew that fighting this many Creeps would set him behind the Grimm pack ahead, so he decided against fighting them in favour of drawing one of his new weapons, Arboria.

Five years ago, upon returning to the same spot where Abraham had slain the Dark-Bough, what remained in its place was a sturdy log of a hard, ebony wood that was resistant to fire and as tough as iron.

Ozpin thought it only fitting that it should be Abraham's prize to do as he pleased. The boy back then only took three seconds to decide what it should be used for, and Glynda Goodwitch had been more than happy to help him carry he log back to the academy.

Abraham spent an entire week just dedicated to carving out the two-meter long totem pole-staff that he now wielded. Along with its intricate wing-like design at the end of it, the staff could also split in half and had been hollowed out, capable of firing shards of Dust at speeds matching many rifles.

With it, he struck the ground with it before firing a single shot to propel himself over the snapping Creeps before firing a Fire Dust crystal straight at the group while he was still performing a front-flip.

Abraham didn't even bother to look behind at the resounding explosion, as he needed to push forward lest he attract more Grimm to his position.

_Abraham, they are headed for the ruins._ He heard Doombeak's voice in his head. He gave the raven an unspoken word of "Thanks" as he changed the direction of his sprint ever so slightly so that when he burst into the forest clearing, he was facing an old, mossy set of stairs that led up to a stone altar.

A small pack of Beowulves were making their way up the set of stair when Abraham called out to them. They all turned around to see him and he immediately noticed that one of them had a red sash around its upper forearm.

'Looks like I found you.' The blonde muttered to himself as he replaced Arboria on his back and held Nightwither in both hands. Almost immediately, the Grimm started charging towards him while more started pouring out from around the ruined structure.

As the first Beowulf leapt at him, Abraham firmly planted his feet on the ground before swinging the axe with all his might. Having trained with it so much and having grown over the course of the five years since he first arrived, the axe wasn't nearly as long and heavy as it once was.

Turning with the force of the attack, Abraham followed the strike up by planting his foot against the shoulder of a Beowulf that was trying to sneak around him before pushing himself off the creature and tackling into a Creep.

Both he and the Grimm tumbled to the floor, but Abraham recovered quicker and finished the creature off by decapitating it.

He didn't even have time to assess the current situation as a Beowulf came charging into his side. However, instead of trying to dodge or level with the creature, Abraham decided to roll with the attack and was able to grab onto the Beowulf's bony protrusions as the monster tried to bite his head off.

Eventually, Abraham was able to position himself so that he hung onto the creature's back as he drove Nightwither into its skull. The death blow abruptly stopped the Beowulf's charge as it tumbled to the ground, sending him flying.

While in mid-air, Abraham stretched out both of his arms while flicking his left wrist. The motion caused two small, thin crossbow limbs to spring out of the bracer he wore on his right arm before he fired it at a Creep that was closing in on him.

The bolt was enough to cause the creature to tumble to the ground, but it wasn't enough to kill it. That was when he refocused his attention on a small Ursa that was closing in on his right. In the span of half a second, he twisted his body so that he could hold Nightwither in both hands before firing a shotgun gauge straight at the creature.

Although, Abraham underestimated both the creature's durability and the force of the shot, as it sent both him and the Ursa stumbling backwards as he ungracefully hit the ground.

Getting back up and dusting himself off, he noticed that the number of Grimm had at least decreased during his fight. Reloading Nightwither, he scanned the area for his target before spotting it, standing behind at least half a dozen other assortment of Grimm.

Before he had time to think of a battle strategy, Grimm starting crawling towards him from all sides. Unable to think of a better combat form, he just blasted away at each of them until his shotgun was empty before resorting to using his hidden crossbow-bracer, the Night Raven.

After dispatching with the immediate threat around him, Abraham had more time to reload and think of a better strategy before more Grimm decided to attack him. Right before he was about to slip the first shotgun shell into the axe, he heard Professor Ozpin's voice through the earpiece.

'Remember, Abraham; Dust is Humanity's natural weapon against the creatures of Grimm. Use it to its full potential…'

'Or don't use it at all.' He finished as he dropped the shell in exchange for a pair of Dust crystals from the pouch he wore on his hip.

He slotted both into the chamber of the axe/shotgun hybrid before pumping it. Focussing on his target – which was slowly closing the distance between them, he closed his eyes for a moment as he focussed on activating his Semblance. His mind went back to one of the last things he remembered his father telling him, as it most often teased the activation of the Semblance.

_Don't be afraid of the darkness…It's more afraid of you._

Opening his eyes, his whole body glowed with the energy of his Semblance as he sped off. As he was a meter away from the pack of Grimm, he fired off the first Dust crystal which caused a strong hurricane to form around him, picking up twigs and leaves as he spiralled towards the pack.

Abraham fired off the second Dust crystal as he barrelled into them, creating a torrent of fire as he swept straight through them. Breaking his fall with a roll, he turned around just in time to see the fiery wind sweep across the other Grimm to the side of his target, charring them before they all eventually fell to the ground.

The blonde was overjoyed at the success of the attack, as he had never tried to combine those two particular Dust types together. He gave a cheer as he jumped up in the air before skipping over to one of the charred corpses and untying the cloth around its arm.

'Did I pass?' he asked to no one in particular as he held the cloth over his head, sure that there was someone in the treeline who could see him.

'I think you performed excellently, Abraham.' He heard Ozpin's voice through the earpiece.

'Not bad for a twelve-year-old, eh?' he gloated with one hand on the earpiece to better hear Ozpin's praise.

'You still have much to learn…but you're making great progress.' Ozpin construed. He couldn't see the others who were watching him, but he hoped that they were all proud of him. It was all he wanted at this point.

Well, that and lunch.

'So uh, how do I get back?'


	3. Prologue 3: Grimm Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Darkness falls, all manner of wicked and evil unravel and show their true nature. It is in these instances when the truly innocent can become the truly evil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to submit any OC's through either PM or comment. Details should include name, age, Aura colour, Semblance, physical appearance, personality, anything else that you think is important.
> 
> Additional note: This chapter was written by the original creator of this fanfic, and I have avoided re-writing it out of respect that the OC in this Prologue was his idea, and something that I'll have to come back to at a later time.
> 
> In any case, please don't take this chapter as a reflection of the story - it gets better.

Running. The world is dark and the darkness has eyes, prowling through shadows like wolves through a wood. But the darkness was not the hunter, for wolves are not always on the hunt, and sometimes the hunter becomes the footsteps sounded softly, yet all so loudly, and with them came the deadly sound of a predator, a predator that was once a friend, but was now an enemy, like all things must eventually become.

An eerie whistling lunged through the air, and something pierced me in the back, like a dagger of misguided and evil betrayal. And with that came pain, but with that pain came surprising cold, relaxing and calm.A shape towered over me, a dark looming tower of the inevitable, filled with fangs of steel. The footsteps stopped like a rabbit feeling the eyes of a predator, or a creature gloating over its kill. There was sadness there, or bittersweet triumph, though I could not place it, and all faded into shadow.

* * *

Chapter I - The Rebirth

The world was of shadows again, yet it seemed that a long time had passed, and a great many things, seemingly small but with far-reaching consequences, had come to pass. And still a shape towered over me, a shape with eyes of fire, and a body of darkness that blotted out everything else. I heard a pained cry then a whimper, like a dog being beaten by its master, and all went dark again.

Now I woke up, and I was in a bed, or what felt like a bed, but had no blankets except what seemed to be a cover of solid shadows. The time of day was not apparent, and the sky could not be seen, as well as everything else in the room. There was a presence nearby, although I could not tell what, which felt dark, and cold, and suddenly I could feel my own body. It felt as though it had changed greatly, yet stayed the same. I felt stronger, both in body and soul, and in what felt like countless other ways, yet I also felt chilled, despite all I could do to prevent it.

Suddenly I remembered the presence, and fell off the what-seemed-to-be-a-bed-but-was-most-probably-not, and I heard, or rather felt, a chuckle. I felt a strange, detached, amusement, like one watching a clumsy chick, and felt a strange, yet irresistible, compulsion to move towards the source, and I complied, against most common sense, and, suddenly, I was a new being, and, indeed, I could remember little of what had happened from when before I woke up.

I felt a sense of pride from the presence, and I went back to the not-bed, as I called it, and drifted back to sleep.

The next day the darkness almost felt at home to me, and I supposed it to be the power of my new being, but I also felt more, dark, myself. Like I had grown at home to the dark, and so I was more shadowy myself, but not as an evil being, it was simply more aligned with shadow. I also awoke with a ravenous hunger, and I was provided food of a strange sort, food-but-probably-not-food. It was, like everything, made from shadow, but filled me almost wholesomely. Almost.

* * *

Chapter II - The Awakening

Many days passed, I knew, though I could never see the sun or moon, and still all was in darkness, like a dark creature's belly. But with everyday I became stronger, like a nurturing killer's womb, and with everyday I was more of a shadow myself. I started seeing dimly in the darkness, and, eventually, I felt as if the shadows were my cloak, and, indeed they became one.

Still more time came and went, and, one day, I could see. Seeing was like feeling there was something right beside you all the time, while you secretly rebelled against it, and, once you accepted it in full, you became its master. As soon as I could view the room about me, The Presence greeted me in full. It announced with a deep voice I never heard again, save in my mind. It announced proudly and in a deep voice, dripping with power, 'I am The Alpha.' Eventually, that voice would be the spark that started a fire, a fire that would remake the world, but that was far in the future, far after The Alpha.

And yet another mystery was revealed to me, as well. The not-bed was revealed to me in full, and it was a great structure, one of murk, and was stronger than steel, yet as soft as spider-web, waiting to ensnare its enemies in its eternal webs of dreamless sleep.

At first I was hungry, very hungry, like a wolf hungering for a meal of tender, juicy, flesh, from another wolf as much as a little girl. So then I took my meal from the pack. Then I was thirsty, as thirsty as a wolf who had been out in the unforgiving forest for far too long, as happy to take blood as water, and so I slaked my thirst, too, from the pack. I felt the need for claws to snatch, to take or steal whatever I wanted, and so it was that took it from the Beowolves. I wished for the power of death, the potency of poison, like the wicked and long dagger of betrayal, and I took it from the Death-Stalkers. And I hungered for the power of shadow, to envelop me like a cloak, a cloak that hid my true form, and created a human form in its place. So it finally was that I took that from the Murk-Spinners*. Finally, I wished for the dominion of all things, and I needed to take that from the humans, and I proclaimed that to The Alpha, and so he revealed to me my true purpose In the Grimm. I was to masquerade as a human, and to, slowly, learn all that there is to know, and then to take the humans, and to give the Grimm control of all things. From that day forward, I was part of something much larger. To be fast, strong, and powerful, and to take all the things that I wanted, and that The Alpha, as well, wanted.

After that day, I learned the true meaning of Grimm. He who has mastery of the shadows, and he who has the strength to take that mastery, and drape the oppression, like an over-heavy blanket, over all others. That, is truth, or was truth for the present.

*Grimm spiders, spin webs of shadow for fellow Grimms to reside in and create Grimm dust, a substance that destroys nature, and replaces it with a Creature of Grimm(respective to kind of creature corrupted)

* * *

Chapter III - The Way of The Grimm

For a long time I lived among people, creeping into their lands and kingdoms like a wolf creeps into a cottage. And for a long time a bided my time, discovering information about all the kingdoms, and learning all their weaknesses, and strengths. And for a long time I thought about power, and The Alpha. It seemed to me as though The Alpha was doomed to die, as all things, and It's friends would to turn to enemies, as was inevitable, and the weak would die, and the strong would take the power and gain mastery over others.

And so eventually it came to pass that I, knew that I had to kill The Alpha. Not for power-lust, not for greed, but for the way of the Grimm.

At night, prowling through the shadows, like a wolf creeping through a wood. Nothing had ever made me feel more alive than knowing what to do, and doing it. I crept into the ancient ruin, my footsteps sounding softly, my prey was my friend, and master, yet not, not anymore. It is the way of the Grimm.

In the clearing I saw The Alpha. He was huge, easily 4 times my height, and had a shimmering darkness wrapped around him like a cloak. But despite all appearances, I was stronger. He did not see me. I suddenly lunged at him, an eerie whistling through the air. He moved quickly, and sidestepped my strike. And disappeared into the shadows. He did not vanish for long, though, as he dashed out like a snake, and stabbing at me fiercely with his colossal talon. I used my murk cloak to deflect it, and raked along the entirety of The Alpha's belly. But this was not to kill. Like a wolf raking a boar's back, merely to weaken it, while probing it for a weakness. Like I had done with Man. But even though I had scored a strike, he had still not showed all his might. Suddenly dark shards, like terrors out of some dark dream formed around him, and they shot towards me like the claws of an eagle, reaching out to take me and rip me from limb to limb. I knew the murk would not protect me this time. I rushed towards The Alpha, a tornado of claws, and I unleashed the killing blow. I struck out with my stinger at his unprotected thorax, and injected my deadly poison into it, like the final death blow to a great creature from a weapon it had created. I then ran the stinger through the rest of his body, like gutting a pig, and he collapsed.

* * *

Epilogue

As soon as I killed him, his power flooded through my body. I found I had mastery over darkness, and I could manipulate shadows like wind manipulates fog. I could also form shards of dust, and use them to strike my enemies, and give them to my 'friends'. I also became the Alpha of the pack, and so I had many things to do. I still walked among Men, and I still hungered for power. But the fuel was catching, and great events were about to come to pass. The world was changing.


	4. Prologue 4: Ladies Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When a gentleman who seeks glory and to right the wrongs of the world finds himself desiring more, which direction will he turn to in order to get this power.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies if I kept anyone waiting with this chapter. I underestimated how much rewriting needed to be done for this one chapter based on the first draft. The next chapter will be up extra early to compensate for it (also because I can).

Getting behind the lines of the bandit group and making his way to the centre of their encampment was easy enough for the eighteen year-old Nathan Grey. Nathan was able to use the cover of night and the cover provided by the tents and fences they had put up to defend themselves to jump from shadow to shadow as he neared the centre of their operations. If he wasn’t so modest, Nathan would have even wagered he could talk his way past the guards – convince them he was one of them, however Nathan didn’t want to take those chances.

He moved carefully between the guards and tents with an air of confidence as opposed to caution. His matt-grey trench-coat made little noise as it fluttered gently against his grey trousers in the breeze. Unbuttoned, it revealed the cream coloured shirt underneath.

Though he was relatively young, his whole body had a matured look to it. The hair on his head was cropped short and was naturally grey in colour, much like his namesake. His eyes were also a dull-grey colour, and reflected no light. Under his trench-coat, a belt and a set of holsters held up his trousers, while also supporting the weight of two silver-coated semi-automatic handguns.

Even from a distance, one could tell by the way Nathan walked that he had a determined, confident attitude, and it was what he often attributed his ability to be unseen to. Nathan was a teen who believed in confidence, charisma and careful speech above all else, and he carried it with him wherever he went. Whether it was when cutting deals with people, finding his next fling with a girl or going into battle.

In this case, his confidence would carry him to victory, because he was confident he must not fail.

Whether it was because he got careless in his confidence or because of bad timing, one of the bandits finally caught sight of Nathan as the leader of the bandit’s tent finally came into view.

The bandit called out to his friends before drawing his weapon and charging to hack Nathan apart. However, the teen reacted just as quickly, drawing his weapon and his Aura at the same time. The grey field that surrounded him subconsciously materialised as his Semblance without him needing to focus hard on it like in the past.

In one second, the bandit was charging straight at a teenager with a gun pointed at him. In the next second, there were three such identical teenagers in front of him now. An expression of shock and confusion took over his face before the bandit continued to charge forward with his axe drawn, determined to attack the Nathan Grey in the middle of the three.

However, as the bandit brought his weapon to bear on the teen, the axe-blade passed right through Nathan before the illusion disappeared completely. The bandit didn’t even have enough time to look surprised before the other illusions disappeared along with it, just as his companions arrived.

A moment passed where the bandit looked back and forth around the camp with a dumbfound expression as the others grew agitated and annoyed at the false alarm. This changed when several bright lights appeared around the camp, as different visages of Nathan appeared and began running about.

‘Spread out! Take them all down!’ one of the bandits shouted as the group dispersed after the illusions with their weapons drawn. Many of them caught up to the copies of Nathan with ease and used their weapons to break the illusions, each illusion only capable of withstanding a single hit before breaking and vanishing in a flash of light.

All the while, Nathan kept low and let his illusionary Semblance do all the work for him, hiding behind a conveniently placed crate while the illusions caused the bandits to spread out.

With all the commotion, the leader of the bandits, a red-headed woman with a scar over one of her eyes, emerged from her tent with an irritated look. ‘What’s going on here?’ she demanded to know.

Just like he had anticipated, the leader of the group had made herself apparent at the first sign of trouble. Then, when no one was looking, the grey-haired boy jumped out of cover and casually walked up behind the woman from the side with his weapon raised. ‘I think it’s called an attack.’ Nathan stated casually. ‘Or would you consider this a trap?’

The redhead froze up at his words and hardly moved as she spoke. ‘If I owe you money or something-’

Nathan chuckled at the bandit leader’s response. ‘No money, but you and your gang have been causing a lot of trouble for good people. That needs to stop.’

As he said this, the rest of the bandits appeared and began to surround them. ‘Oh, and you’re going to stop us?’

‘I didn’t want to be the one to force you guys – I’m just a messenger. I was just hoping I could…sway you guys to take more immediate action.’ Nathan explained as his other hand found the other pistol at his side.

It was then that the bandit leader turned around to look at him. At first, she seemed surprised to see him before her expression turned cocky. ‘Who sent you, cause they must be pretty desperate to send a kid after us?’

Even though he knew it was beneath him, Nathan involuntarily growled under his breath before speaking again. ‘Well, this “kid” is only going to ask once more, and nicely, before we do this the hard way.’

The other bandits began to laugh at this as the bandit leader began taking a few steps backwards. ‘In that case, let’s just cut the crap and skip to the part where we loot you clean.’

Nathan smiled widely at this as he put the gun in his hand back in his holster before spreading his arms apart. ‘Be my guest.’ He stated invitingly, which concerned the bandit leader that there was something up. Nevertheless, she made a gesture for one of the other bandits to approach. He stood right in front of Nathan for a few seconds before reaching forward with a hand to grab him by the trench-coat.

However, as his hand wrapped around the grey fabric of his coat, his figure disappeared in light before several gunshots could be heard from across the camp. Suddenly, the tents began exploding into fire and embers as two of the bandits dropped to the ground. It was then that the bandits realised, to their shock and fear, that Nathan was now several metres away and firing both his pistols for precise shots.

Another bandit dropped before the others reacted and began charging forward or firing with their weapons. Another was shot down before someone was close enough to engage Nathan in hand-to-hand combat. And even then, they found it very difficult to land a hit on him because of his fighting style of diving and dodging away from attacks to give him more room to train his guns on them. Only when he needed to did Nathan raise his arms to block an attack, but he used his bare wrists to stop his opponents arm from delivering the blow instead of blocking the blow itself.

The second bandit to get close enough to Nathan was using a spiked club, and tried multiple times to pummel him with the weapon with overhead swings. However, his attacks were sloppy and predictable and Nathan eventually found an opening where he could put his gun right to the man’s chest and blow him halfway across the camp with an explosive Dust round.

His matt-grey eyes looked to the other two armed bandits, who had frozen in their place when they realised the kind of firepower Nathan was packing. In this time, Nathan gingerly reloaded one of his pistols, which had run dry first before training his guns on them.

‘Screw this! I don’t get paid enough for this!’ shouted one of them before darting off into the woods, followed by his friend.

‘Get back here, you cowards!’ the redhead bandit leader shouted while slinging forward a rifle that she carried in a sling around her body.

Nathan looked around to make sure there was no one else waiting to jump out at him before spreading his arms as he face the leader. ‘Looks like it’s just you and me now, sweetheart.’

A growl came from the bandit leader’s side of the camp before she unleashed a burst of fire from her rifle, only for the shots to pass right through Nathan before the sound of footsteps from her left became apparent.

In the quick instance that it took for Nathan to reach the redhead, the grey-haired teen reversed the grip he had on one of his pistols so that he was holding it by its barrel before trying to fire a point-blank shot from the other one into her side.

The bandit leader dodged out of the line of fire quickly before returning fire in quick bursts. On the third bursts, a couple of the bullets came close enough to graze Nathan’s trench-coat, but didn’t cut any deeper than that.

Instead, the boy went in for a close-quarter attack and whacked the hilt of the pistol in his other hand into her gut, sending the redhead back a few steps as she tried to train her aim on him. Nathan didn’t let up his offensive, striking repeatedly with each of the pistols in his grip.

Eventually, the redhead decided to change her offensive tactics and removed the magazine from her rifle. When she did, she also pulled forward on the weapon’s bolt to extend a blade from under the rifle’s barrel.

Now both equipped with the means to fight hand-to-hand, the redhead and Nathan clashed weapons several times before the grey-haired teen began firing wildly with one of his guns while making it seem like he was trying to land a shot on the bandit leader, determined to get to the last two shots in the magazine.

 _Seven, eight, nine, ten,_ he counted down in his head before suddenly backpedalling and firing the remaining two shots at the bandit’s feet, causing the Dust rounds in them to react and form a layer of ice that trapped the redhead by rooting her to the ground.

Fortunately, the attack seemed to have caught her by surprise and she wasn’t able to react quickly enough when Nathan used the end of the pistol in his other hand to smack her rifle out of her hands before grabbing it by its sling and tearing it off as a gasp came from the woman. Tossing it to the ground, Nathan changed the grip on his pistol once again to fire three shots at the gun to bend and break the rifle’s frame so that it was no longer useful.

With that out of the way, Nathan refocussed his aim on the redhead trapped before him, pressing the barrel of the handgun to her forehead. In the dim light of the half-moon overhead and the burning tents around them, she could barely make out the words “Silver Blood” engraved on the side of the gun’s frame.

She had a terrified look in her eyes and Nathan stared at her with an unreadable expression, like a dear caught in the headlights of a speeding truck, knowing there was no way it would stop in time. His finger flitted over the trigger a couple times before the teen eventually lowered his hand and holstered the pistol he had held to her face.

‘Well, I hope this will give you cause to reconsidered my proposition. In the meantime, I should be off. It’s getting late.’

With that, Nathan turned to walk away while reloading the handgun in his right hand with Red Dust rounds, firing them at the tents that were still standing around him to make sure he got his point across.

* * *

Nathan slammed the door to the car shut with a sigh of relief when his back hit the comfortable leather of the chair. Looking to the driver’s seat, he saw his driver impatiently tapping his fingers on the steering-wheel of the car.

‘You know I charge every twenty minutes, right Nathan?’ the driver asked him rhetorically in a familiar, friendly tone.

‘Yeah, yeah. I’ll be sure to work quicker next time.’ He dismissed with a tired sigh as he pulled on the fabric of his trench-coat to examine the bullet holes and grazes it had sustained. ‘Ah, darn. And I just had this dry-cleaned.’

‘You’re not bleeding all over my seats, are you?’ the driver asked again as he looked around the opening to the passenger’s seat of the vehicle. When he did, Nathan caught the familiar sight of a bald, dark-skinned man.

‘Nah, these guys barely hit me. You went ahead and got ready the apartment in Vale, right?’ he asked after waiting a second to give pause between his statements.

‘Sure is. Even got the hot water running for when you get back there.’ For a few seconds, the two lapsed into comfortable silence before the driver spoke again. ‘Ok, I know my contract expires tomorrow afternoon-’

‘Rico, don’t worry about it. I already told you; we can still be friends after.’ Nathan stated with a cocky smirk.

Rico laughed in response to the quip before continuing. ‘It’s not that. You said you were done picking weak jobs like this after this one, and something tells me you aren’t taking an early retirement, so where’re you heading next?’

This question had been on Nathan Grey’s mind for the past few days. He definitely didn’t want to keep on scrambling at any job to take care of a group of wannabe bandits in order to pay for his lifestyle. No, he wanted people to come to _him_ for help. But to do that, he needed a reputation. He needed allies now, and most of all, he needed to become stronger, and he knew just the place where he could refine his skills and gain the fame he sought.

‘Beacon.’

 


	5. Chapter 1: Dealing with The Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Paths will cross as one Soul finds himself a part of another's grand scheme.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time seems to have slipped away from me once again. Don't worry, it won't be a recurring thing (I hope).
> 
> Again, I don't own RWBY or any part of the franchise. All rights go to Rooster Teeth and its creator Monty Oum. I'm just a fan keeping his memory alive in my own personal way.

The glow of the broken moon above Vale illuminated even the darkest alley and lit the sky like a perpetual twilight. Despite being in its “Crescent” phase, the light penetrated the clear night sky and cast away the darkness of the night.

However, the shadows still lingered, as shadows were a creation of light; the brighter the light, the deeper the shadow. And, as Drake walked down the length of an alley on the outskirts of Vale, the shadow he cast was darker than his robes.

Drake had no business here at this time of night, however, this was where Sabre was meant to meet his latest client. That was who he was when he donned the dark-red mask with three V-shaped slits across its surface. The face behind the mask was merely the face of the vessel for the stone-cold demon that took over whenever work called.

There was something off about this contract that Sabre had picked up on only after he had accepted it – a rookie mistake. The task was unspecified, he didn’t know who his employer was and, most importantly, the payment was unspecified.

What else could have drawn the mercenary to this task then? Nothing more than the fact that he had lost a bet at a drinking bar further downtown Vale. The mercenary he had been playing had heard a rumour about a sketchy assignment with little-to-no details behind it, except that the person who created the notice would meet with whoever wanted to take up the task at the same place at the same time on nights with a crescent moon.

It was commonplace amongst mercenaries across Remnant to dare each other to accept assignments that were either considered “suspicious” or “dangerous”, so word quickly spread about this particular assignment as bounty hunters and mercenaries were pushed to do it. In the end, however, no one took up the assignment because of the lack of details about the payment, believing it to be not worth their time.

That is, until now.

_I’m already regretting this…_ Drake thought to himself as he paced back down the alley he had come for the third time tonight. _That’s the last time I visit that bar for information about Infamous…_

He had followed the only specific part of the assignment down to the letter: to meet here, down the thirteenth branch in the labyrinth of alleyways in this forgotten attempt at a suburb on the outskirts of Vale. This led Sabre to two conclusions; that he was being toyed with, or that his client was late.

As he ran his leather-gloved hand against the old brick wall of one of the buildings on either side of him, Sabre suddenly felt a chill go down his spine. It wasn’t like the regular type of chill either – ones he would get from being watched or stalked. No, this kind of chill felt like a cold, intangible hand had just passed through his back and gotten a vice-grip on his Soul.

His breath caught in his throat for a moment as he froze where he was, paralyzed with a sudden anxiety at this new sense of fear. Looking about to assess where this fear could be coming from, his eyes landed on its source at the opposite end of the alley, the way he had just come.

Instinctively, his hand flew to the hilt of his primary weapon, the Nightingale, as his eyes took in the nightmarish-figure at the end of the dimly-lit alley. Truthfully, he couldn’t see through the Sabre mask, but it was designed in a way that it projected whatever it was facing onto a screen inside of the mask, allowing the dark-haired mercenary to see as if he wasn’t wearing the mask at all.

Hidden behind a pitch-black cloak that covered its entire body, the figure was quite indistinguishable aside from the fact that it at least looked Human. It may have just been a trick of the light, but Sabre swore, from the way the cloak lightly waved in the midnight air and seemed to absorb all light that hit it, that different parts of the cloak seemed to evaporate into the air the same way Grimm did when they were killed.

Taking a moment to compose himself, Sabre tried to get a grip on his nerves as the black-hooded figure stood motionless. About five seconds passed before the mercenary decided to finally approach his client, and intimidate him before was the one intimidated.

‘About time you got here.’ Drake began, his voice distorted by the distorter within his mask. However, he was only met with silence as the figure stood as still as a statue. Letting out a sigh, Drake tried again. ‘So, what is it you want me to do?’

Again, the black-haired mercenary was met with silence as the seconds passed. His patience running thin, he was just about to turn around and walk the other way when the figure finally spoke up. It’s voice was both smooth and venomous as it said, ‘Take the books of the four Kingdoms. Bring them to me.’

Sabre had to pause for a moment to make sure he had heard that right, but when he did, confusion and rage mixed with one another in his mind. _Book stealing? Is this some kind of joke?_ Wanting to clarify things before he jumped to conclusions, the mercenary took a few steps closer to the mysterious figure. ‘I’m sorry; I don’t think I understand what you’re asking of me.’ Moving closer to the figure, Sabre was surprised to find that he was only a couple inches taller than his stranger.

Instead of giving a verbal reply, the figure extended one of its hands from under its cloak, revealing what looked more like a claw than a hand – covered completely in black fur. With the palm of his “hand” facing downwards, several Dust crystals suddenly materialised out of the stranger’s palm and fell to the ground with a hollow, resounding noise.

In such a state of shock at what he had seen, Sabre took a step backwards as roughly two dozen Dust crystals fell to the floor, one by one. When they stopped falling, Sabre took a moment to count them before looking back at the figure. ‘What are these?’ he asked.

‘Payment…’ the figure breathed out. ‘Return tomorrow, when the moon is its highest.’ Turning around, the figure began to slowly walk away into the night.

For a few seconds, the mercenary just watched as the black stranger walked away before he bent his knees to pick up one of the Dust crystals. It glowed in the moonlight and seemed to be unrefined – a cheap substance to come by. However, one Dust crystal in particular caught his attention.

Reaching over and picking it up, it felt different to the others. Every other type of Dust felt like it was filled with energy waiting to be released by its user, but this one in particular, which had a smoky-black and red colour that seemed to constantly change in the moonlight, felt cold and dead.

Looking back up to ask the stranger about this Dust crystal, Sabre was, again, surprised to find that the stranger had disappeared.

_Payment before the assignment has been completed? That’s a new one._ The mercenary thought as he began pocketing as many crystals as he could before taking off his crimson-red cape to carry the rest of them like a sack. _And who the hell hires a mercenary to steal books?_

* * *

With such an unspecified task with such a broad interpretation, Sabre decided it was better to be safe than sorry with what he took. So, making a mental list in his head of what “Books of the Kingdoms” could mean, he headed down several dark alleyways towards the Vale National Library. In any other case, the mercenary would have simply taken the payment and completely forgotten about the task he was given – as he had better things to do than commit such a simple crime that he had already been paid to accomplish.

However, something _felt_ different about the stranger he had run into just hours earlier. In his line of work, Sabre had seen much of what Remnant had to offer in people, Human or Faunus. The stranger he had seen and spoken to in that alley was unlike anything he had ever seen before.

Granted, Sabre had only taken up the mercenary lifestyle four years ago and many of the older mercenaries kept telling him that he had barely begun to see what the world had to offer. Though he felt that what they had told him to be true, Sabre had his doubts that even the mercenaries that had been taking up contracts for decades had ever met a client like _that._

So here he was, breaking into the backdoor of the National Library in order to steal a bunch of books. All-in-all, the task actually proved more challenging that he had initially thought it to be. The surveillance cameras stationed around the back and front of the large, column-shaped building were strategically placed to cover up as many blind-spots as possible. However, many did not mean all, and the dark-haired mercenary had a knack for exploiting even the slimmest of blind-spots.

When avoiding the cameras wasn’t an option, all Sabre had to do was pull out his halberd and take a swing at it, not bothering to break a few pieces of equipment if it meant that he couldn’t be caught.

It took about five minutes, but Sabre eventually reached the employee entrance at the back of the public library. Just as he reached into his belt for his lock-picks, the type of lock that sealed the door caught his eye. _Magnetic…there’s no way I can pick around that._

Slowly, the mercenary ran his finger along the sash that went across his upper torso before stopping on one of the half-dozen kunais that were strapped to the belt. Drawing it out of its leather sling, Sabre held it in a backhanded position before quickly stabbing it just above the keypad to the magnetic lock. Firmly lodged in place, the mercenary twisted and pulled out the ring on the end of it before taking a few steps back.

Four seconds later, the kunai suddenly sparked with arcs of electricity, firing the keypad and the small light that hung over the door. _Don’t set off the alarm, don’t set off the alarm…_

After about two seconds of spitting arcs of lightning, the Lightning Dust in the kunai ran dry and rendered it just another sharp weapon. When no alarms went off, Sabre took his first few steps towards the door before turning the handle and pushing it open. It swung slowly without resistance and didn’t set off anything else. As the mercenary set a foot into the library he paused to remove his dagger and take it with him. _No sense in leaving evidence of who did this…_

Though most of the lights were off inside the building, Sabre didn’t need them as his mask had a built-in Low-Light function, which allowed him to see everything within two metres in front of him as clear as day.

It still, however, didn’t help him see the motion sensor he tripped. Pushing open another door at the end of the hallway, Sabre entered the cylindrical atrium of the Vale Library. From the ground floor, dozens of bookshelves stood perpendicular to the wall they were pushed up against, each only seven feet tall. There were nine, ring-shaped levels in total, each built so that light from the skylight in the centre of the roof of the building could flitter down and provide adequate lighting for most of the library, shining down on the librarians desk at the centre of the ground floor.

He hadn’t visited it in a while, but it still impressed Sabre to no end. _Ok, enough sight-seeing…What’s first? History? Geography? Culture?_

The list went on, but Sabre didn’t hesitate to jump on the task sooner rather than later.

Opening up a spare rucksack that he always carried around with him, the mercenary began with pulling out several cartography books, letting them fall into the sack. Once he felt that there were enough, he moved on to the fifth floor; where all the books on history and culture were kept – keeping his eyes open for more security cameras along the way.

So focussed on watching out for more security cameras, the mercenary completely missed the floorboards that slid apart to reveal the library’s hidden security system.

Despite the empty library being quiet enough to hear a pin drop from halfway across the atrium, Sabre was so focussed on running his finger along the spines of the books that he did not notice the other presence in the room until it began shifting its hydraulics.

The source of the noise was just behind him, but Sabre still wasn’t able to turn in time before a metallic fist slammed into his side, just as he was about to turn to face his opponent.

The force behind the blow sent him sprawling across the floor and caused him to lose hold of his sack of books. Out of his grasp, Sabre kept trying to get a hold of one of the straps on the sack as he slid across the floor, though he had no such luck as the sack sailed over the railings that led to the centre hollow of the atrium.

Fortunately, the strap became caught in one of the metal beams that made up the basic structure of the railing. Sabre breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the bag dangle dangerously over the edge of the railings for a second, before getting back up to face his opponent.

In the shadows of the atrium stood a Vale-made Close-Quarters-Combat Android, codenamed “Chelybs”. Through his black and white Low-Light vision, Sabre couldn’t make out what colour the android was, but he could clearly see the various metal plates covering its body and its significantly larger fists, each powered by a set of hydraulics that hissed when they wound up.

Without hesitation, the android leapt towards the mercenary with its fist drawn back. Sabre tried to reach back and draw Nightingale to counter the machine brawler, but the reinforced metallic fist made contact first and sent Sabre back against the railing, knocking the wind out of him.

The android followed up its first attack with another, but this time the mercenary was quick enough to dodge out of the way first, leaving the android to leave a large dent in the metal railings. Seeing an opportunity to disable his opponent, Sabre pulled out the kunai he used earlier to overload the magnetic lock on the door and stabbed it into the back of the android’s neck, lodging it deep in the circuitry inside.

Sabre had hoped that the blade would severed something vital or at least cause some critical damage, but all it did was cause the android to thrust a metallic elbow into his side, sending the mercenary reeling backwards.

With the speed and fluidity of a professional boxer, the Chelybs turned around on one foot to deliver a series of punches to Sabre’s upper body, not giving him any time to respond to the sudden assault. The few times that the dark-haired mercenary was able to block and deflect the punches, the force behind them still caused spikes of pain to shoot through his arms unless he formed a Ward on his arm.

Only able to form one Ward at a time, Sabre had to use one arm to block punches while using the other to redirect them. Despite focussing entirely on defending himself from the Chelybs to wait for an opportunity to strike back, the mercenary wasn’t able to stop all the punches sent his way and eventually gave in to the pain all over his body.

Knocking one of his arms away, the android delivered one final punch that sent Sabre onto his back on the floor, staring at the metallic warrior through heavy eyelids. His chest was covered in bruises and had a few broken ribs, but Sabre was determined to go down with a fight.

_Never thought I’d see the end while stealing books…_ he mused to himself as the android took two steps closer, before suddenly locking up as an arrow stuck through its head.

After giving off a few sparks, the android eventually buckled forward and fell on its knees, kneeling in a slumped position as Sabre took a moment to catch his breath now that his adversary had been defeated.

Cracking open one eye, he looked to where the arrow had come from to spot a figure standing on the opposite end of the floor above, waving down at him. Weakly, he waved back once before the figure disappeared, and then reappearing a few seconds later above him.

The girl stood at roughly five-feet seven-inches in height and wore a pair of grey slim-fit leggings covered by a pair of white boots that reached halfway up her shin. A marble-white slim-fit shirt covered her top, along with a dark-brown leather vest that was buttoned together above her waist. Her platinum-blonde hair reached down just above her waist in an unkept free-flow and her face was covered by a porcelain mask.

‘I am…so glad that I let you tail me this time.’ Sabre said through rasped breaths as he reached a hand up to remove the mask on his face to get a breath of fresh air while remembering the little bet between them.

‘Oh, so this time you _let_ me tail you?’ the figure asked back with a giggle as she slung her bow across her back.

‘Whatever.’ Sabre replied with a sigh as he tried to sit up, immediately feeling a sharp spike of pain run through his whole body as did. Immediately, the girl knelt next to him to slowly help him up. ‘Thank you, Nicole.’ It felt strange to refer to her by her real name, but also felt at the same time the gesture was appropriate in return for her help. Plus, it helped that they were alone.

‘I’m going to get you out of here.’ He heard her say, though his consciousness was wavering.

‘Grab…that sack…I…need it for the client…tomorrow.’ He said as he weakly pointed to the rucksack dangling over the railings.

For a moment, a look of confliction crossed Nicole’s face as she looked back and forth between the sack and her partner, who was still reeling from his injuries. ‘I’ll be fine…just grab it so we can get out of here before more trouble comes.’

With a hesitant nod, Nicole quickly dashed over to where the sack was hanging from and slung it over her shoulder before moving back to help Sabre up.

‘C’mon, tough guy. I’m getting you out of here.’ She said before sliding an arm over his back and front, causing the mercenary to wince at the contact over his freshly-bruised skin. ‘Sorry.’ Nicole said as she noticed the pained look on his face.

‘It’s fine…let’s just get out of here.’ He said as he slowly brought out his halberd to support him like a walking stick, trying to not put too much weight on his partner of seven months as he slung his free arm around her neck. Quickly slipping his mask back on, the duo began to make their way out of the library. ‘I hope you at least tried to avoid getting spotted by any of the cameras on the way here.’ Sabre decided to use some small-talk to take his mind off the pain.

‘Contrary to popular belief, I can be stealthy if I want.’ The platinum-blonde girl replied back with a smirk as they made their way down the set of stairs.

‘Sure.’ Sabre said before letting out another grunt of pain. Breathing out a sigh, he thought over in his mind how he was going to explain his request to his partner, but eventually decided to just be blunt about it. ‘Listen, I don’t think I’ll be moving for a while, so I need you to finish the assignment for me.’

Nicole stared at him with her silver eyes full of concern. ‘Are you sure?’

Nodding Sabre continued as they made their way towards the backdoor of the building. ‘Yes, I’ll tell you what you need to know when we’re safe.’ As he said this, a small smirk crossed the mercenary’s face as he thought back to when he had accepted the girl as his partner, and realised that it hadn’t been a completely bad decision after all.


	6. Chapter 2: To The Beacon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fates collide as things are set in motion for a grand union of heroes who don't even know how significant of a role they play.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Urgh, this is so time-consuming! I have, like, 20 other chapters primed and ready to be uploaded, but my compulsive behaviour has compelled me to rewrite these really bad first few chapters. I've already burnt the last copy, so don't even ask about it. Thank you.

With a start, Nathan bolted upright as he felt his mind reel from whatever dream he was having, determined to throw him back to reality.

To steady himself, the grey-haired boy took a few deep breaths as he looked to the side of his bed and placed a hand on the waist of the woman sleeping next to him. He couldn’t recall her name at the moment – he always had problems remembering their names as soon as he woke up, but knew it would come back to him later.

As he stroked her smooth, tanned, bare base, he reassured himself that everything was alright, and that she was sound asleep. Try as he might, Nathan could not fall back asleep no matter how inviting the pillow or the thought of having another round of what he got last night were.

What wasn’t inviting, however, was the thought of staying awake the next… _two and a half hours!_ Nathan definitely didn’t have the patience to sit around doing nothing for that long, and it was then that he decided he had better be on his way.

As quietly as he could, the grey-haired teen crept out of the bed, put his clothes on and grabbed his gear. On his way out, he made sure to leave a note next to a thermos of coffee for the lady when she woke up. Sure, he had set her up for a one-night stand, but he was still going to be a gentleman about it.

As he walked out of the house, Nathan found that a few early-morning snowflakes were beginning to fall. There had been a consistent snowfall the night before, and it looked like it wasn’t over. A fitting end to Winter, in Nathan’s mind, as the last snowfall this year seemed to be drawing itself out for as long as it could.

When he made it to the sidewalk on the path to Vale’s airship fields, Nathan took the Silver-Bloods out for a quick look-over. They had a plain design, but were coated with silver, and could fire Dust in a bolt or cloud as well as a bullet. They had an unusually long barrel, but there was not much else to them. That was where the modification strapped to his back came in; it was an interchangeable attachment that could go on either barrel, and allowed the two pistols to lock together to form a rifle where he could grip the hilt of the fore-gun like the machine pistol. With it, he could rapidly fire bullets and a variety of other firing methods that even he wasn’t too sure about.

Satisfied that they were in presentable order, he put them away and continued down the path.

For a long time he thought about how he would get into Beacon, seeing as he had no certification at any other school, and he needed to be very smart as well. Nathan was being modest when he admitted to himself that he wasn’t what some people might call ‘brilliant’, although he was fairly good at fighting, and he was more street-wise than most, possessed a knack for persuasion as well as decent deductive skills.

While he was thinking about this, he continued on the road, and, when the light began to glow brighter in the sky, he figured he was due for some breakfast before heading up to Beacon. From what he gathered, there were some initial trials or induction tests that he would have to take before being considered by the teachers as a possible attendee, but he would worry about it when he got to it.

But, how could Nathan have known that he should have chosen his words and actions later that day with more care? The teen, as experiences as he may have been, had no way of knowing he would get wrapped up in something much larger than himself. It was precisely these kinds of thoughts that compelled him to take his time with both breakfast and lunch, resolving to only try to apply later that evening. If he missed his opportunity, he would try again tomorrow, as he was in no rush to become rich and famous.

As he took a sip of his morning coffee and unfolded that day’s newspaper, events were unfolding several hundred kilometres away, involving the Schnee Dust Company train making its trip across Sanas, a certain huntsman, and a certain bounty hunter.

* * *

Wolf ran across the ground with a tide of Grimm in his wake. The time for stealth was over.

He had learnt, from the tomes and books he had asked for, about the shelters that the Humans called villages and of Vale. He had learnt where many of them are supposed to be, and now, Wolf had a direction to follow.

He now knew where to strike, to gain more food for my pack, to control yet more territory, and to destroy all the other packs. That is what it meant to slowly gain ground, to gradually spread the control of his Pack until Wolf ruled all – first Vale, then all of Remnant.

His Pack quickly caught sight of the railway that would take the Human’s giant metal snake from one place to another. He and the others had been scouting it out for weeks, waiting for the right time to strike at the prey. Now Wolf knew; he had been watching carefully all that time and noticed a pattern. Now, the train would soon be upon them, and he would be ready.

* * *

If Sabre hadn’t seen it for himself, he would never have believed the freelancers at the bar he was eavesdropping into. It was a routine for the mercenary; to sit around popular watering-holes and see if he could pick up any bits of information on his targets, but he never expected to catch wind of an entire SDC train derailed by a swarm of Grimm.

The train, with all its contents and passengers, was thrown off its railings by the sheer force the Grimm hit it with, and now hundreds of SDC employees, Faunus slave labourers and tonnes of Dust were stranded outside of Vale.

Of course, this attracted the attention of quite a few mercenaries, as they knew that a derailed train meant anything goes with who got at its cargo. Sabre himself was running a little dry on Dust reserves, and wouldn’t pass up the opportunity to seize some.

Sabre acted at the first light of day, quickly moving to the predicted crash-site. The sun still had not risen, and it painted the valley in different shades of purple and blue. It didn’t come as a shock to him that the wreckage was still smoking and smouldering from explosions along the mains. What shocked him was that the SDC’s private security was still fighting hard against the Grimm to hold their ruined train.

Across the length of the different compartments of the train, tracers from gunfire and the sounds of men and women shouting could be heard.

_Perfect. They’re all good and distracted._

Removing the Nightingale from his back, Sabre made his way down the hill at full speed, cutting through any Grimm that didn’t see him coming and avoiding the ones that did. He found the compartments of the train that housed the Dust easily enough, but was disappointed to find many of them empty – recently looted by the looks of it.

It was when he checked his third cargo hold that Sabre found the crates of Dust that he had been looking for, quickly working to pry the lids open with the end of his halberd. Suddenly he heard a noise, whipping his halberd around in response, alert towards any noises. It took the mercenary a second to realise that the sounds were coming from the walls of the cargo hold, or rather, from beyond the walls.

Cautiously, Sabre approached the wall and put his ear to it. It was then that he heard that the noise was actually a voice.

* * *

'Everyone over here! Get over here and keep walking this way! I've got you covered!'

Abraham was shouting to the Faunus slave labourers that were cowering from the Grimm in their compartment of the train, trying to get them away from the Grimm and behind the safe borders of Vale. However, he had his work cut out for him.

Technically, Abraham wasn’t here. He wasn’t here to strike at the Schnee’s operations, he wasn’t here to release their forced labourers and he definitely wasn’t here as a Huntsman. Least of all, he hadn’t expected the train to be overrun by Grimm, let alone thrown off its tracks.

_This was supposed to be a simple spring operation! How did the Grimm get involved?_

This, however, meant that he was running this job alone, which was a bit of an inconvenience seeing as he had to direct the slaves to the city, cut the shackles on the ones still bound, and protect them from the Grimm all at once.

It wasn’t going to be fast, nor could he guarantee the safety of all the slaves, but his naïve heart wanted to save them _all_. He was constantly looking behind his shoulder, paranoid that the creatures of Grimm would creep up and kill him and the freed slaves. Near the top of the list of worries was how spent he was, having kept this up for the past couple hours. He avidly wished that he could have support, and he could stop any probability of Grimm sneaking up on him.

Then, the unexpected sound of a gunshot came from right outside the carriage where the slaves were kept, right as the body of a Creep tumbled into the carriage, causing many of the Faunuses there to back away in fear.

That fear was only doubled when a dark-robbed man appeared in the entryway of the carriage, levelling a halberd at the slaves. At first sight, the man looked more like a demon from a fairy tale to Abraham than a man; his blood-red mask hid all trace of the man’s humanity, and his robes and hood covered him completely like a shadowy shroud or a coat of fur, while the red cape that hung from his back gave him the visage that his body was dripping blood.

Reflexively, Abraham raised his axe against the man, sensing dark intentions from him. However, the man made neither any attempt to attack or lower his weapon. After what felt like an eternity of silence, the man spoke, but it was also like the voice of a monster. ‘So, the Schnees _are_ hording Faunus to work for them.’ His halberd waved over to the slaves, who all backed away in fear before it landed back on Abraham. ‘And you must be a Huntsman.’

Abraham cocked his head to the side as he tightened his grip on Nightwither. ‘I don’t suppose you’re here to help.’

A growl could be heard coming from behind what Abraham thought to be a mercenary before the black-robbed man suddenly stepped out of the way. In his place, a Beowulf leapt into the carriage and right on one of the Faunuses.

The dirty-blonde reacted instantly, jumping into action and delivering a fatal blow to the side of the Grimm’s head before it could so much as sink its teeth into the Faunus. When the threat was dealt with, Abraham looked back up to find that the man had disappeared, and made a mental note to go after him when his job was done.

At the least, Abraham needed to get these people away from the train and into the forests. From there, he knew there was no way he could keep track of them all, and made himself believe that they would be safe – that they would find somewhere safe to go.

Once that was done, Abraham would go after the man in the robes.

* * *

Satisfied now that his curiosity had been sated, Sabre turned his attention back to looting what remained of the train’s Dust cargo. At each step of the way, it seemed that the Grimm were determined to stop him, and he had to cut down a couple Beowulves closing on him.

Suddenly, he heard a whistling in the air from behind him, before the sound of something hard hitting the metal plating of the train next to him could be heard. Quickly, the mercenary ducked back inside the wreckage of the train.

Just where he was standing a few seconds ago, were long, dark, spear-like bones from a Spinalantiums sticking out of the hull of the train, and he knew that they were going to be a problem.

Large porcupine-like Grimm, they were walking death-traps with a body covered in spines sharp enough to rip through stone and could fire them at the speed of a thrown spear.

Emerging from cover, he used the Nightingale to propel himself over the beowolves using the backwards thrust generated by the powerful sniper rifle, making a graceful arc through the air, just as the Spinalantiums launched a new volley of spines. Without stopping, he took one of his explosive daggers out of his belt, and threw it at one of the quickly approaching spines.

The dagger exploded in a flare of icy energy, and the spines froze and then consequently shattered. Sabre landed and took a swing at the nearest Spinalantium, splitting its neck apart vertically while throwing knives into the armoured heads of two others, with the Nightingale still embedded in the first Spinalantium's neck. Having thrown the daggers at a miscalculated angle, the blades bounced harmlessly off the thick armour of the Grimm.

He quickly wrenched it out of the Spinalantium's neck, letting a spray of black fluids ooze out, and turned to face the remaining Grimm, quickly switching to the Ursa's Claws and firing gauge after gauge round at any that came to close after plunging the blade of his halberd into the ground. One by one they fell, and eventually there were none left.

Then he felt a shadowy presence behind him, and he only had a split second to duck impulsively before the black shape crashed into him.

* * *

Of all the things Wolf had expected, he had not expected to encounter the bounty hunter he had met and dealt with a few weeks prior. However, that didn’t stop the half-Grimm from attacking him on sight, perceiving the mercenary to be a threat.

Unfortunately, the mercenary somehow saw the attack coming, and managed to duck out of the way so that Wolf’s attack only grazed the top of his head before Wolf was sent sailing over his head and landed in front of him. Wolf lithely changed direction and faced him, growling in a deep, threatening pitch.

Without warning, the half-Grimm lashed out with his left hand, which transformed in a swirl of dark vapour into a deadly stinger and lashed out at the man. Surprised by the attack, he barely deflected it with his halberd, but did not expect for another attack to follow it. This time, Sabre rolled with the strike instead of trying to deflect it, causing the end of Wolf’s stinger to come close enough to graze his robes, but not enough to break the skin underneath.

As Sabre stumbled backwards and broke his fall with a roll, he switched out his halberd for the two bulky weapons at his sides before charging straight at Wolf while firing rounds of closely-packed shrapnel.

Not truly understanding the weapons before him, Wolf charged forward to intercept the man while taking each of the shots with reckless abandon. Throwing his arms behind him as he went, large claws the length of short-blades suddenly formed where, in each, a pair of large paws used to be. When he closed the distance, Wolf immediately brought his claws to bear on the bounty hunter, who used the blades at the end of his scatterguns to fight back.

The two clashed multiple times as Sabre gave ground each time Wolf pressed a strong offensive. However, this overconfidence became his undoing as he noticed – but didn’t think too much on – Sabre’s sudden change of weaponry.

The mercenary had suddenly swapped out one of his guns for a large knife when they separated and there was enough distance for Sabre to do so. They clashed again, with Sabre using his knife to fight this time in the place of his scattergun. With it, the mercenary struck high, aiming for Wolf’s head, which forced the half-Grimm to raise his arms in defence and left his lower torso open to the shot from Sabre’s spare gun. The shrapnel cut into his thick hide and badly wounded his left leg, but Wolf was able to channel this blind fury into a powerful strike that threw Sabre back a couple metres.

It was when Sabre rose once more did Wolf notice that the knife in his left hand was now gone, and it took him a second longer to notice that it was by his feet. Wolf thought little of it – until he smelt smoke.

In the next second, Wolf’s whole world was sideways as the explosion right at his feet threw him across the clearing, slamming him into a rock and breaking several of his internals, leaving him there incapable of moving for the time being.

His awareness was heightened in his crippled state as his body began to heal itself once more, and he allowed his hatred to stew as he concocted new and more painful ways to end the bounty hunter’s life.

* * *

Abraham had just unloaded a shell from his shotgun-axe into a nearby Boarbatusk as he watched the last of the slaves run and duck behind the cover of the dense foliage around the train-wreck. They were finally out of his sight, but the blonde knew they were not out of earshot.

‘Head north! That’s where Vale is – you’ll be safe and free there!’

The Boarbatusk let out another defiant squeal as Abraham rounded it to hack off its hind-legs, leaving it to die as he jogged back to the train.

_Ok, Faunus are free. Now to find that mercenary._

Hacking through a couple Beowulf on his way, Abraham eventually spotted the mercenary climbing out of one of the carriages in the train. At his side looked to be as many Dust canisters as he could fit into a single rucksack, while he also carried a bundle of canisters under one of his arms, seemingly tied together by a cable or strong thread.

It took Abraham all of a second to figure out what he was doing; the mercenary was looting the cargo of the train – just like a bandit.

With little hesitation, Abraham raised his left hand and activated the Nightraven on his wrist, firing a bolt at the man with the flick of his wrist. The dark-robbed mercenary must have also caught sight of Abraham, however, as he blocked the shot by raising his free hand, causing a maroon-coloured wall to form in front of him. The bolt bounced harmlessly off the wall when it made contact as the mercenary ducked back behind cover.

The wall disappeared when the red-masked mercenary ducked for cover, and Abraham used the opportunity to circle him – the mercenary having nowhere else to run.

However, the next time he popped out of cover, the mercenary caught the dirty-blonde by surprise when he threw the bundle of Dust canisters at him, where it landed a few feet from him just as Abraham fired his first bolt.

The shot missed by the time the mercenary had drawn his halberd, and it took Abraham a second to realise what the man had planned. He wasn’t able to jump out of the way in time when the bullet hit the bundled up canisters, and was caught in the ensuing explosion.

From the mixture of fire and ice Dust in the different canisters, the explosion also created a thick fog as it threw the dirty-blonde a couple metres back.

The sheer force of slamming into the ground was enough to rattle Abraham’s teeth, but he used what he had learnt from his training to push through the pain and refocus on what was happening around him.

When he was able to prop himself back up, the first thing Abraham did was try to locate the mercenary. This was made even more difficult by the fog that limited the visibility in front of him, and allowed him to get caught off-guard for a half-second when the mercenary suddenly broke from the fog several metres to his right.

As soon as they caught sight of one another, the mercenary fired another round from his halberd, aimed straight at Abraham’s heart. The blonde reacted quickly, rolling out of the way of the shot so that it only grazed his arm before hitting the ground.

The wound it left still bled a little, but it was better than having a hole in his chest.

Using the momentum from the roll, Abraham was able to get back to his feet just as he saw the mercenary dash into the surrounding forests. Gritting his teeth in determination, Abraham hefted the axe in his hands before letting his Aura flare.

On foot, Sabre stood no chance of outrunning Abraham.

But when on a chase, Abraham stood no chance of knowing that he was _being_ chased.


	7. Chapter 3: Crossed Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As forces converge and paths will cross, four individuals will learn that destiny works in strange ways, and not all destined encounters are pleasant ones.

Dead and dried leaves were disturbed from their gentle resting place on the forest floor by Abraham as he ran along the widest path between the trees. Not once had the boy stopped to rest in his hunt for the mysterious, red-masked man that he had encountered only hours ago. Abraham was determined to catch him above all else for the dirty-blonde could tell just by looking at him that the mercenary was up to no good.

For all Abraham knew, he might’ve been the one to cause the train wreck. _Better safe than sorry, as Ozpin always says._

Slowing down his pace to a brisk walk, Abraham turned his eyes back to the sky in search of his companion. He spotted the black form he was looking for against the overcast sky and immediately focussed on it.

Finding the Bounty Hunter was hard for him, but with Doombeak, his close raven companion, Abraham had a literal bird’s-eye view of the area. Focussing on the mental link they shared, Abraham spoke aloud as his words were carried through the bond they shared.

‘Doombeak, do you still have eyes on the mercenary?’ he asked while avoiding a particularly large root on the ground.

_Yes, Abraham…I think._

‘You think?’ Abraham repeated.

_I see a figure running through the fallen leaves and between the bushes roughly ninety metres ahead of you, another thirty-eight degrees to your right. Assuming it’s the same figure I saw earlier…_

‘We’re on the right path.’

He had missed the forests in his time at Beacon, with Doombeak, and the youthful trees there, as his only reminders of the great forests in which he had ventured in as a young boy. He shook his head to rid himself of his thoughts, and continued on his hasty path towards the Bounty Hunter.

* * *

Abraham wasn’t the only one closing in on the bounty hunter, however, for after Wolf had recovered from his wounds, he too had gone in pursuit of the dark-cloaked Human. He had left his pack behind in favour of delighting in the pride of tearing apart his prey single-handedly. The Wolf ran on all fours in order to cover more ground in longer strides, kicking up dirt when his clawed hands pushed off the ground.

The man that had fought him had proved himself a powerful warrior, and because of that it was less a matter of revenge, but more a matter of principle. Only the strongest should be allowed to survive, and Wolf was determined to prove himself the strongest of them all. A few solitary Grimm dotted the forest as he went, but Wolf paid them little mind. It was only when he passed the dissipating corpses of certain Grimm creatures with traces of smoke and metal in the air did he stop to examine one.

Looking around, Wolf spotted another, and sensed yet another further on. He recognised the corpses for what they were; a trail of death. A trail, Wolf thought, that would lead him to his prey.

* * *

Sabre was on the last dregs of his quickly fading adrenaline, he had been travelling for well over an hour through the dense forest of red and gold. His encounter with the Hunter and the strange creature had kept him alert on his trip back.

He didn't like forests, it was too dense, the roots were too large and he had tripped over a few on his way to the train wreck – this one particularly over most others. Years of experience had taught him that stalking the forests for targets had its advantages, but the mercenary was always more inclined to the urban environment.

Stopping to lean against the trunk of a tree, Sabre listened for signs that someone was close by for a few seconds while he caught his breath. Sensing that he was in the clear, the red-masked mercenary pulled a paper map of the area out of one of the pouches on his belt and began looking for a vantage point which could help lead him back to Vale. The digital compass in his other pocket told him he was still quite far South-West from Vale, and from it he was able to guess that he would only be back by sundown.

As he stuffed the compass back into its pouch, the motion detector in the mercenary’s mask warned him that something was closing in on him. Without waiting to see what it was, Sabre took off with a dash once again, spotting a hill in the distance and deciding to head there, weighed down slightly by the extra weight of the rucksack filled with his haul from the train.

The mercenary didn’t make it twenty-five metres before Abraham tackled into him, sending them both rolling down an incline in the forests, off a small cliff and into a large dell, dropping the sack in the initial tumble. Sabre was the first to stop rolling when his body hit a tree. Fighting through the pain, the mercenary had enough sense in him to stick his halberd out so that it caught a nearby tree and steadied him.

Abraham, finally having found his target, broke his fall with a roll, stopping just inches from slamming into a tree like the mercenary he had pursued. When he turned to face the man, Doombeak flew past his head and made a short round to land on his shoulder.

Quickly finding his footing, Sabre stepped up into a ready position and levelled his halberd-rifle with the dirty-blonde’s head, but didn’t fire immediately. Seeing the challenge, Abraham took up his own ready position, choosing a defensive stance when he took note of how the dark-robbed figure had the higher ground.

As the two stared each other down, Sabre was running the numbers in his mind for how much ammunition he still had. He considered trying to locate the sack of Dust he had been carrying for the extra firepower, but soon accepted that the Huntsman in the top-hat wouldn’t let him get that far.

Instead, Sabre would take the risk of calling the blonde’s bluff. ‘I’m only going to say this once.’ He kept his voice low to make it sound even more menacing through the distorted. ‘Walk away now, and I will forget your face. No more blood has to be spilt here.’

Abraham lifted his head when Sabre finished speaking. Briefly, as if considering the offer, Abraham lowered his weapon just slightly before raising it back up. ‘I don’t want you to forget my face. I want you to remember me, Abraham Linkin, so you can tell everyone who bested you.’

Without saying another word, Sabre pulled the trigger of his rifle. To his surprise however, the round he fired was just a few inches off his intended target – Abraham’s head. Instead, the round knocked his hat clean off the boy’s head, causing him to stagger back as if he had been hit and for the raven on his shoulder to flee in fear.

Surprise quickly turned to rage on Abraham’s face as the blonde launched forward with his axe raised to kill. Sabre just managed to save himself from taking an axe to the neck when he held the shaft of his halberd out defensively, catching the hilt of the axe against it and preventing the axe-head from getting any closer.

As the blonde struck again and again, the mercenary was forced to react faster each time to save himself from receiving any kind of hit – spinning and swinging the Nightingale wherever necessary to parry each attack.

After several seconds of combat, Abraham was able to catch Sabre off-guard when he struck a low kick, aimed at one of the mercenary’s feet. The blow knocked him off balance, giving the dirty-blonde enough time to hook the head of his axe under the halberd’s handle and toss it away with a strong flick.

Defenceless, Abraham moved in to finish off his target with an overhead, only to be met by a solid, maroon-coloured wall of energy projected by Sabre from his extended hands. When the blonde struck the wall a second time and reared his axe back for a third attack, Sabre quickly dropped the wall as one of his hands went to the hilt of an Ursa’s Claw, drawing it forward and aiming it at the head of the axe. In one shot, the weapon left Abraham’s hand and he took a couple steps backwards as Sabre drew his second scattergun.

‘You have nothing to gain from this battle.’ Sabre stated, confident about his victor before Abraham suddenly threw a jab forward which threw off the aim of the gun in his left hand and caused the round to punch out a chunk of a tree instead.

Swiping upwards with his other hand, Abraham just managed to smack Sabre’s other Ursa’s Claw out of the way before he pulled the trigger, sending a shower of shrapnel into the branches of the trees above. Immediately changing his tactics, Sabre decided to try and slash at Abraham with the blades on the ends of his weapons.

The sudden offensive forced Abraham back out of fear of getting hit by one of the large, curved blades at the end of the mercenary’s weapons, but he soon retaliated with a carefully placed block with his fist. When the blade made contact, Sabre was surprised to find that his weapon did not cut through the boy’s flesh, but instead stopped against something hard. Looking more closely, Drake realised that Abraham was wearing metal bracers around each of his wrists, which seemed more than enough to protect him from the Ursa’s Claws.

Evenly matched, the two were locked in fierce combat; Sabre primarily on the offensive while Abraham fought more defensively, only taking a quick jab whenever Sabre made an opening for him.

It worked to keep the mercenary on his toes, but the dirty-blonde eventually slipped up when he tried to smack Sabre across the head with one of his bracers. The mercenary saw the attack coming long before Abraham brought his hand down and reacted by raising one of his Claws so that it caught the blade.

Abraham tried it again, only for the same thing to happen, leaving him completely open and vulnerable to the kick Sabre planted against his lower abdomen. The black-clothed blonde was sent back a few metres, stumbling before righting himself and flicking his wrists to reveal that the bracers he wore were also small crossbows.

Both aimed their weapons at each other, but neither shot first. In the end, neither of them pulled the trigger at all when the sound of a sharp growl coming from the top of the dell was followed by the sound of something large leaping towards them.

A large, black creature covered in what looked more like tattered clothes than fur had leapt into the air and was now descending on Sabre, wielding what looked to be some kind of long flail or whip in one of its arms. It took the mercenary a moment before he realised that it was the same creature he had fought just hours ago by the wreck of the train. Recognising the immediate danger, Sabre prepared to form a protective Ward to shield himself from the creature’s attacks, when suddenly something small struck it in its side and caused it to tumble at an odd angle and miss Sabre altogether.

Turning around, Sabre saw that Abraham had actually been the one to fire the crossbow bolt that threw off the Wolf creature. Naturally, Abraham bore an expression of both fear and shock when he laid eyes on the Wolf creature, likely never having seen anything like it before. As the blonde lowered his arm back to his side, the two locked gaze for a couple of seconds before the red-masked bounty hunter gave a small nod in acknowledgement for what Abraham had done.

It only took the simple signal for the two of them to reach the unspoken agreement that this Grimm needed to be dealt with first, all differences aside.

Sabre had no sooner turned to finish off the Grimm, raising his scatterguns level with the creature’s head. _What the hell are you?_ He thought while trying to get a good look at the beast that had attacked him twice. The Wolf, however, didn’t stay down for more than a second before suddenly rolling away in a spasm of motion, righting itself and launching forward in the same second.

Crossing both his arms in front of him, Sabre created a Ward just in time before the black mass could tackle into him. The wall took the force of the impact and held, but the Wolf quickly bounded off it and strafed to the right where he could flank around Sabre’s shield.

Not having expected the sudden change in attack, Sabre instinctively raised his right arm defensively, causing the Claw in his hand to get knocked away when a large black paw batted at it.

In response, Sabre took a shot from the hip with the remaining scattergun and reached into the knife belt across his body for a kunai. The shot did the job and caused the Wolf to stagger backwards with a large puff of black particles where the shards of shrapnel hit, giving the bounty hunter the opening he needed to pull the ring out of the end of the dagger and flick it at the smoky, black figure in front of him.

The Grimm creature, however, seemed to regain its senses just in time, bringing a claw up to deflect the throwing dagger away and into a tree, which caught fire in an explosion of flames a second later.

With the knife out of the way, the Wolf wasted no time in transforming its left arm into what looked like a smaller, more flexible version of the stinger of a Deathstalker Grimm now that Sabre got a better look at it. That brief look soon turned into a first-hand experience of the stinger’s strength, as the Wolf Grimm sent it out with the flick of its wrist towards Sabre.

Thanks to his Aura, the stinger didn’t pierce the bounty hunter’s skin after punching through his robes and what little armour they provided, but it still allowed the Grimm to throw Sabre across the dell when the stinger remained hooked in Sabre’s armour.

When Sabre finally stopped tumbling, he raised his head to take in his surroundings against the pain he felt all over his body. Through bleary eyes, his breath caught in his throat as he saw the Nightingale just a couple feet out of reach. His eyes then turned to the Wolf creature, which was rapidly approaching, and made the decision to start crawling – quickly.

As soon as the Wolf dropped to all fours and began running, Sabre knew he wouldn’t make it in time – and with only a couple more daggers to protect himself, he wouldn’t last long against the creature.

That was, until Abraham intervened.

* * *

Seeing an opening with which to attack the Grimm creature, Abraham charged forward at a perpendicular angle to the Wolf as it moved it finish off the mercenary. By the time the creature noticed Abraham, it was already too late.

Empowered by his Semblance, Patriot’s Will, Abraham charged forward with an unnatural speed and tackled into Wolf with unnatural strength. The attack brought the blonde to a complete stop as it threw the Wolf creature back almost five metres. Not wanting to give it a chance to recover, Abraham immediately took three incendiary shells from his belt, loaded them into the Nightwither and began firing gauge after shotgun gauge at the Grimm.

Wolf, however, was fast and ran faster than the dirty-blonde was able to take aim. Instead, all Abraham hit were the trees obscuring his line of sight, setting them ablaze.

Wolf was careful, only taking the opportunity to attack Abraham after his shotgun-axe clicked dry. When he did attack, the Grimm unleashed a flurry of quick and light attacks. The dirty-blonde reacted quickly enough to block each attack with his modified woodcutter’s axe, but wasn’t fast enough to get a hit in on the Grimm. Just as he was about to act on an opening created after the Wolf delivered a heavy attack and needed a second to recover, the beast was gone before Abraham could even rear his weapon back.

Apparently the mercenary had recovered from his tumble and tried to sneak up on the Grimm to deliver a slash at the creature’s back. Wolf, however, somehow anticipated the attack and dodged out of the way just as Sabre brought his halberd down, hitting the ground inches from Abraham.

‘Where is it?’ Abraham asked as he spun around, checking his surroundings as flaming branches from the burning trees fell to the forest floor, catching the few patches of grass around on fire.

As if to answer his question, Wolf leapt out from behind a tree, soaring through the air nearly two metres off the ground and plummeting straight for the two Humans. The two were able to dodge Wolf’s initial attack, but couldn’t react fast enough when the Grimm formed shards of smoky-black crystals around him and hurling them in all directions.

After the first two hit him – breaking against his Aura, Sabre gained enough sense to create a Ward in front of him and blocked the rest. Abraham, however, was not so lucky, and was struck with the barrage of glass-like shards that broke his Aura’s shielding and threw him backwards. It was a small consolation, in the blonde’s mind that the projectiles stopped by the time he hit the ground, and that his top-hat was within arm’s reach of where he landed.

Seeing that Abraham had been knocked down by the attack, Wolf advanced on the downed Huntsman as the Human scrambled to put his hat back on his head and load another round into his shotgun, failing miserably and dropping the shells in his hand.

However, before Wolf could get within a metre of the blonde, a sharp pained filled his shoulder as Wolf howled in rage, fury filling his vision. Turning around, the Grimm found that Sabre had been the one to attack him, firing a bullet of some kind from the end of his halberd. As Wolf turned to face him, the mercenary held his weapon at his side in a ready position as Wolf changed both his claws to be nearly three times as large as before.

Before either opponent was able to make a move, the roar of wind met their ears and they looked to the sky. Turning his gaze upward, Abraham saw that three airships were hovering over the dell where they had begun fighting. Neither combatant made to move as armoured soldiers – members of the Judicator Unit, if Abraham remembered properly – dropped out of the airships from cables, landing on the raised ground around the dell and taking up aim on all three of them.

Abraham didn’t know why they were targeting him as well, but – as he was in no shape to fight back – decided to comply nonetheless and lowered his weapons while raising his arms.

* * *

Abraham wasn’t the only one that took the option of surrender, it seemed. To Wolf’s surprise, the mercenary across from him performed a similar gesture as he dropped his weapon and raised both his arms over his head.

While Wolf had considered fighting his way through the Humans that had suddenly arrived, he knew now that he would have an even slimmer chance of survival now that the mercenary had also decided to surrender, which meant he would be fighting on his own.

Exhausted from his fight, Wolf decided to take a gamble and surrender as well as he willed his claws to evaporate and raised his arms over his head. Though they would likely kill him, the chances were greatly reduced when compared with the chances of them killing him if he put up a fight.

No sooner had he raised his arms did a few of the armoured Humans descend into the dell to place something against the mercenary’s back before delivering a sharp blow to the back of his head, knocking him out cold.

The same was soon done for Wolf as well.

* * *

Abraham looked around his cell for the fiftieth time. Despite the circumstances he was in, he was at least thankful that the Judicators had given him a separate cell to the scum and riff-raff that they kept here.

In the silence, the blonde was able to contemplate what had just happened. After the Judicators had arrived on the scene, they had quickly arrested the mercenary and Grimm creature that he had been fighting. What surprised him more than the fact that they chose to arrest it and bring it into custody was the fact that neither of them had put up a fight in the process.

When they had approached him next, the blonde thought that they were coming to offer their aid, but instead had come to fasten a pair of cuffs around his arms as soon as they got him standing. Any questions and confused remarks he had made were completely ignored until they boarded one of the airships.

‘At least tell me who sent you?’ he had asked the woman wearing the set of armour that designated her to be the squad’s officer.

‘We’re the rapid-response Judicator Unit. We heard about the incident and came looking – it’s our job.’ She responded, shouting over the sound of the airship’s engines.

‘How did you find us, then?’

‘In case y’didn’t notice, the forest around ya was on fire.’ When the officer replied, the sides of her mouth quirked up in what Abraham thought was a smirk, before continuing to stare out of the open hatch to their right, refusing to answer any more of Abraham’s questions.

Since then, he had been put into a holding cell for an uncertain amount of time. No guards had come to tend to him, and no guards were stationed in the room he was in. Truth be told, it was more of a stark-grey waiting room or interrogation room than it was a holding cell, as it had no bars, no windows and the only way out was through a steel door.

He hated it more than anything else. The indignation and humiliation of being imprisoned by the official law enforcers of Vale was nearly more than he could handle, especially considering that the mission he was on was _strictly_ “off the records”. He had been caught interfering with private corporation affairs red-handed, and now, Abraham knew, there was little Ozpin could actually do to protect him from the fury of the Schnee Dust Corporation.

The sound of the door being unlatched drew his attention to the far wall, expecting another Judicator officer to walk in and begin the series of questions as to why an unlicensed, undergraduate Huntsman-trainee was doing out by the wreck of an SDC train. No doubt, such an incident would raise questions about his involvement in the accident, considering how many lives had been lost.

 _They should really think about how many lives could have been lost instead._ He thought to himself while turning to face his interrogator. _I-_

He was not, however, prepared to come face to face with Professor Ozpin, walking in with his cane and usual attire. The only thing that was different to the professor’s usual look was the stern frown of disapproval on his face.

‘Ozpin,’ Abraham’s mouth moved without him needing to think about the words. ‘I-’

Before he could continue on his list of reasons and apologies to try and convince Ozpin to give him another chance, the white-haired man held up a hand for him to stop. Just as the words poured forth from his mouth automatically, the gesture, too, forced him to stop talking without Abraham really needing any time to process it.

A few seconds of silence hung in the air between them as Ozpin pulled out the lone chair in the room and sat in it, facing Abraham across the table. ‘Were my instructions not clear about the nature of this errand, Abraham?’

Visibly flinching at the words, Abraham replied, though hesitated when he mistook the question for a pointed statement. ‘Yes, sir.’

‘Then you understood that if you were captured, I would be hard pressed to defend myself in front of the Judicators and explain what my prodigy was doing freeing Faunus slave labourers for the Schnees.’ Ozpin went on, his expression hardly changing.

Swallowing hard, Abraham nodded his head in reply. ‘Yes sir.’

With a sigh, Ozpin reached up to rub the bridge of his nose. ‘I’m sure you know all this already, Abraham, which is why I’m also sure you remember our agreement that you would have to take full responsibility in the event you were caught attacking the SDC and liberating their legally obtained “cargo”.’

There it was; the one thing the blonde was afraid that Ozpin would do. With Ozpin’s approval and support, Abraham at times felt that he could surmount any challenge that came his way, but now that he had been caught committing a “crime”, neither of them could risk endangering Ozpin’s legitimacy as the headmaster of one of the only four Huntsman Academies in Remnant. Solemnly, Abraham nodded his head. ‘Yes sir. I won’t drag you down with me and will accept whatever punishment is waiting for me.’ Abraham wouldn’t dare to look into Ozpin’s eyes, afraid to only find disappointment and scorn.

He had given him so much - was failure the only thing Abraham had to offer?

Another sigh drew Abraham’s eyes back up as Ozpin got up and rounded the table to stand right in front of the blonde. ‘That being said, the Judicators have not found any evidence that links you to either the train wreck, or the disappearance of over two dozen Faunus labourers.’

This time, Abraham’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion. ‘Sir?’

‘Due to a lack of evidence, the Judicators have decided to drop your case and have let you off with a bail.’ One side of Ozpin’s mouth quirked up in a half-smile then. ‘Apparently it’s only twenty Lien for the charge of setting a few square metres of forest on fire.’

‘Wait, Ozpin, are you really saying that…’

‘You were lucky this time, Abraham. I’d advise you exercise more caution in the future.’ Ozpin said as he placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder.

A wave of relief and joy swept over the dirty-blonde as he let out a shaky breath and gave the white-haired man a weak smile. ‘Thank you, Professor. I promise not to squander this chance.’

‘Don’t thank me just yet, we still have work to do.’ Abraham was confused by the man’s words, initially, until he continued on. ‘Tell me what happened in the forest with that…thing.’


	8. Chapter 4: A Dark Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Held captive by a man in power with mysterious intentions, the only thing left to do is talk.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Working on several stories at once is not easy, let me tell ya. Less so when school work's piling up and I keep procrastinating.
> 
> I'll try to keep rebalancing my time to the greatest effect, but I just want to say that once I get these first few silly rewrites out, the chapters will start flowing like a waterfall.
> 
> Slightly shorter chapter than the others, but that's because I'm working with most of what was already written and just adding a few quality touches.
> 
> Post-note: In all the four years this chapter has existed, I never thought of this one discrepancy in the story's flow until today, and I just had to change it. It's helping me get back into the swing of writing though.

_Darkness. A gleam of yellow in the dark, like the gleam of greed in an eye which has found what it has always wanted. Darkness again. A gleam of red, dark red, filled with the blood of evil souls, and the desire to destroy – to kill. The gleam stayed there, as staring at something, and only slowly did it occur that there was a great thundering, and what seemed to be the infinite darkness around him was resonating with the power of it. A great booming voice came down into the darkness, and the gleam became brighter, showing itself to be an eye. The voice boomed louder, but the eye moved no more._

_Suddenly the darkness burst open to show light, and the full enormity of all what filled it. A great creature stood in the opening to the light, golden scales shining in the sun, with two golden horns crowning his golden head, with two wings as enormous as castles and as strong as tempered steel, and four legs as stalwart as towers and yet flexible by design. But this was merely a silly child pretending to be what children thought of kings, and his face's proud, scornful expression turned to ash when the other creature arose from the shadows. Its face was as black as black could only envy, and its eyes were a perfect reflection of the golden creature's blood. On its forehead there was a plate of Bone, strong and hard and cold, and four horns, like four great towers rising out of the shadows. It's wings rose up like great waves of darkness, and its legs were like cold dark mountains, covering the world in murk. A booming voice, infused with malice and evil, echoed out of it in response to the golden creature's voice._

_The dark creature lunged up out of the darkness and smashed into the other creature, knocking it over like a huge, golden, domino. The creature fought back in vain, but powerfully, tearing great fields out of the earth, and launching them into the sky, making them look like great, floating islands, before they fell back down again, making brown, uneven, hills, and great open scars in the earth. The black creature barely flinched, looking like a mountain itself, until its mouth opened and black and crimson flames poured out of its mouth onto the golden creature. It writhed in excruciating pain, and then fell still, as darkness crept across its body, and gold turned to black and white and red. The black creature stepped off its opponent, and beneath it was a copy of the black creature, albeit lesser in stature . The greater creature roared, and a dark pulse emanated from it. Then the creatures of Grimm emerged from the forest, and all knelt before him._

* * *

Wolf slowly awoke to find himself in some sort of cage, although the view was nicer, it was still a cage. Black iron bars stood around him, held together by two slabs of steel – one directly above him and one under his feet.

The outside smelled of perfume and clean, and morning light sifted in lazily. Wolf put all the other details of the room out of his mind, however, as the only thing that had his attention was the man sitting behind a desk of oak wood in a brass-buttoned black shirt, a green under sweater that reached up to his neck, and a dark grey jacket with dark green jeans that reached down to his ankles.

He had silver hair, and his eyes were a shade of brown. That was what held Wolf; the man’s eyes held a peaceful, calm expression that betrayed no fear. They were sharp – determined even, but for what Wolf would never guess.

He noticed that Wolf had woken up, probably from the gleam of red under my hood, and, unfazed, stood up. He slowly walked over to the half-Grimm and leant on his cane, clearly showing his infirmity, just enough so to taunt me of my inability to kill him. Wolf growled, and ineffectually lashed out at the cage with my stinger angrily, but the man did not flinch.

Wolf was angry, but exercised whatever patience he had learnt from his experience hunting bigger predators and waited to see if the right opportunity presented itself. He stood for a long while, observing me with his brown eyes as Wolf gradually settled down, prepared for the long wait before anything would change in my favour. Eventually, after what seemed days, he spoke. 'Do you have a name?'

Wolf’s facial expression did not betray the surprise he felt, more so to the face that he had an answer ready at the mention of the question. The Grimm do not have names, they are only known and identified by their energies, as names have a tendency to change with the constant restructuring of the packs. However, the half-Grimm had a subconscious tendency to create names on a whim – names that he identified through feeling rather than actual thought. The first thing that came to his mind now, however, was anger as he growled and smashed against the cage.

The man looked at me strangely, as if knowing some secret, and then said 'I know you can speak. What is your name?' It was then that Wolf realised what the look in the man’s eyes was; he was watching him. And not just watching, learning what he could and identifying Wolf’s character through his eyes. He saw through the creature’s façade as a wild beast with a hunger from blood, and saw him for what he was – intelligent, cunning, deceptive.

Wolf would not just betray his true name, however. The name he gave himself was sacred to him, and telling it to anyone else would be nothing short of sacrilege. Instead, Wolf thought up of a false name; one that depicted what he was, externally to the Humans, instead of what he truly was in essence. He kept all signs of any mental struggle beneath his dark robe and replied with a growl. 'Wolf.'

It fit. A wolf takes what it wants when it wants, and only the strongest survive to rule. It was one of the purest expressions of the way of the Grimm. It both suited its purpose and appealed to the creature’s ideals.

'Good' The man said, interrupting his thoughts. 'I see we understand each other. My name is Professor Ozpin.'

* * *

Drake was pulled to his feet roughly by the two guards who watched the cell, and by their grey gloved hands, he was forced out of the cell and moved down the hall, with two Judicators behind him and two in front of him, in their parade ground red and gold.

He doubted they actually expected him to do anything stupid, but it looked like they weren't taking chances. If he wasn't in such a bad situation, he would have taken it as a compliment at how much he intimidated them – him, a lowly mercenary.

He was taken to a new cell in the same prison ward, this one slightly smaller, but that was because most of its central space was taken up by a table and two chairs. _An interrogation room_ , Drake thought to himself as they quickly shoved the mercenary in and shut the door behind him. Alone, the mercenary began pacing around the room to search for any faults or weaknesses in its structure and plan for an escape. After a few minutes of fruitless searching, his thoughts, inevitably, wandered back to White Archer – Nicole, one of his only friends in the world, and maybe something more than a friend to him.

He wondered how she was doing, and why she hasn’t attempted to rescue him yet.

_Probably for the best._

The mercenary was testing the weight of one of the plastic chairs in the room when he heard the door to the cell unlock, it’s heavy lock taking a while to go through all its different clicks and slams. Seeing an opportunity, Drake quickly moved to press himself against the wall by the door, holding his breath as the door began to creak open and a figure stepped through.

Drake struck immediately with a jab aimed for the throat, but the figure caught his hand before it even made it halfway. Though thoroughly startled, what was even more startling was when he took in the appearance of the man.  He had seen the man’s face and heard his voice several times before, and was more than a little frightful that he had just _tried_ to strike him.

The older Huntsman retained an impassive look, however, as he held his gaze with Drake. ‘Good morning.’ With his free hand – which was actually holding a tray laden with two cups of coffee – he gestured towards the table in the centre of the room. ‘Would you mind taking a seat?’

Taking a couple seconds more to ensure that Drake was not going to fight back, the man eventually released his grip on the mercenary’s hand. The onyx-haired mercenary hesitated for all of a second before slowly walking around the table and pulling out one of the chairs to sit in.

The Huntsman followed soon after, placing the tray on the table first before sitting on his side of the table. A few seconds of silence passed by as the man seemed to take in Drake’s appearance before speaking. 'Your knife.'

Drake was surprised, yet he hid it under his years of training. He feigned ignorance, 'What?'

‘Please, don’t make this any harder than it has to be. I just want to have a polite conversation over a cup of coffee.’ The man continued. Surprised by the calm demeanour, Drake looked down at the silver tray the man had brought in, taking a moment to take in the detail of the cups. Each cup was made of white ceramic adorned with the logo of two swords and a shield.

The man sitting behind the desk noticed it caught his eye, ‘By all means.’ He simply said. Instinctively, he reached out to take it, but hesitated at the notion of being offered food by his captor, having been in similar situations before with worse outcomes. Calming his nerves, he continued to reach out slowly, grasping the cup and pulling it inwards to his mouth and tilting his head up to drink it down.

Drake had never regretted a decision more instantaneously than when the hot, bitter liquid touched his tongue. It was so strong and caffeinated, Drake briefly wondered what this was doing in a cup instead of being used to pave roads, and whether his mouth was going to turn to stone from just trying to drink it. He coughed violently, almost gagging at the incredibly strong coffee.

After his coughing fit ended, he slowly looked up at the man again, meeting his gaze. He had a very slight smirk on his face, and asked knowingly, 'Something wrong?’

Drake responded awkwardly, caught off-guard by his question 'Er, it’s nothing, the coffee’s just a little hot that's all.'

The man looked incredulously at him, still with that irritating smirk enamelled onto his face, and said finally 'That still leaves the question of the knife, does it not?' Drake held his gaze for a few more seconds as if trying to call the man’s bluff before sighed deeply, knowing that this was not a battle he could win.

Reaching down into his leather boot, Drake pulled out a four and a half inch knife and placed it on the silver tray, dropping it out of sheer annoyance.

The man spoke again 'I believe that means we are on equal terms now, Drake Venari, I believe?' he extended a hand 'My name is Professor Ozpin.'

‘I know who you are.’ Drake replied without reaching forward to take the hand Ozpin offered. ‘Headmaster of Beacon Academy, the Huntsman academy in Vale.’

The headmaster held out his hand for a few more seconds before slowly withdrawing it. ‘Yes, I should have thought so. You always did have a good memory.’ At that, the mercenary quirked an eyebrow in confusion. Ozpin tilted his head in surprise before continuing. ‘You don’t remember, do you? Oh, I suppose you were a little too young to remember then. We’ve met before – when you were much younger.’

Drake recoiled as if someone had just tried to stab him, leaning back in surprise. ‘I think I would remember having met the headmaster of Beacon.’ He reaffirmed confidently. ‘You have the wrong guy.’

‘But you are Drake Venari, aren’t you? Your father’s name was Carlos Venari and your mother’s was Emily Borealis.’ The way that Drake’s eyes widened in surprise clearly did not pass by Ozpin as his smile slowly grew wider.

‘How…how do you know those names?’ Drake asked, suddenly not feeling so confident or sure of himself. _What have I walked into?_

‘It’s hard to forget the names of two of the brightest students in my third-year world politics class, though I’ll admit the first thing that comes to mind when mentioning your father is all the times he’s gotten himself into trouble for picking fights that were much bigger than him.’ Ozpin’s tone gradually became distant, as if he was reminiscing on something from the past.

A few seconds passed as no one said anything; Ozpin waiting for Drake to speak first and the dark-haired mercenary too stunned to say anything. Eventually, he shook off the feeling of surprise and shock and shot a glare at the older man. ‘Have you just called me here to talk about my past?’

Ozpin stayed silent for a couple of seconds before responding confidently. ‘Yes, actually. I’d like to know what led you to that Schnee Dust Company train wreck. I still have to convince a few people that it was not you who caused it, and having an alibi I can believe in should help with that. As soon as you are done, my men will escort you back to your cell to await further instructions.’ The grey-haired man leaned backwards in his chair while keeping his eyes on Drake the whole time as he laced his fingers together. ‘You may begin.’


	9. Chapter 5: Alliances and Enemies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An unsteady alliance is made between three inmates to ensure their escape and survival.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I both regret and don't regret taking on like seven stories at once with the struggle of school and social life at the same time.  
> A/A/N: So, disclaimers. I do not own RWBY, Marvel, or anything else I manage to take inspiration out of. The only things that belong to me are my OCs' and my additions to the RWBY universe.
> 
> P.S. Hail Hydra.

It had been a quick and painless interrogation, primarily involving Ozpin asking multiple times about Drake’s alibi and account of what happened, interrupted every now and again with more personal questions about what he’s been up to over the past five years.

Drake did his best to give as little away as he could, going with only the barest facts and pieces of information while remaining absolutely quiet when he could. Despite his blatant refusal to answer questions and give the details that Ozpin asked for, the mercenary couldn’t help but feel that the Huntsman was satisfied nonetheless with his responses.

After a final question about how Drake got caught up in the fight with Abraham, Ozpin rose from his seat just as two Judicators came in to escort the black-haired teen back to his cell. Upon his return, however, Drake was met with a curious sight.

Inside his spacious concrete-white cell – along with the already disturbingly docile Grimm creature that they had been captured with – was an older teen in a matt-grey suit and slacks pacing around the cell with an irritated look on his face. Without turning to look at him, the teen started speaking. ‘Well it’s about time – and I hope you brought me a lawyer!’

Looking over his shoulder quizzically at the woman standing guard outside the cell, she shrugged in reply before slamming the cell shut. ‘I don’t think we’ve met before.’

Irritated, the grey-haired teen looks up and immediately sports a brief look of surprise, before it morphs into annoyance. ‘Great, another troublemaker. What’re you in here for?’

‘Murder, probably.’

‘Wonderful, as if it wasn’t bad enough that they stuck me in a cell with…that _thing_!’ he yelled while shaking his hands at Wolf.

‘I wouldn’t try pissing it off if I were you.’ Drake replied in a neutral tone that hid his irritation. ‘And I was in this cell before you, they just took me off to interrogation, so as far as I’m concerned, you’re in my cell.’

‘Eh, whatever. I’m not gonna be here much longer anyway.’ He dismissed with a wave.

‘Would you _really_ be here if you weren’t going to be here “much longer”?’ Drake asked, emphasising the last couple of words. It was outwardly clear that the other man in the cell had an ego that he could pander to, and the mercenary could already see an escape plan forming now that his numbers had increased.

 _If_ he could get the other man to cooperate.

‘I already told them it was an accident – how was I supposed to know there was a policy against feeling up the school staff?’ he began, mostly talking to himself. ‘I mean, it probably didn’t help that she was married, but still!’

‘Well the way I see it, we could either wait here for someone to come to us with a sentence, or you could help me break out of here and never have to see your face again.’ Drake continued while he began pacing the cell as a way to help him think.

‘Oh,’ he now had the suited teen’s attention ‘-And I assume you have some brilliant plan to break us out that you’re just dying to share?’

Drake simply shrugged his shoulders, trying very hard to conceal his irritation with the man’s attitude. ‘Anything’s better than waiting to be put in another cell.’ He knew it was coming; despite how his meeting with Professor Ozpin went, the mercenary knew that one look at his record of crimes and he’d be in a Vale prison for the rest of his life.

‘Ok, let’s brainstorm then.’ The teen finally suggested. ‘What’s your Semblance?’

‘I can create a Ward. You?’

The man’s voice came from a different direction when he spoke again. ‘Just this.’ Turning in the direction of the voice, Drake was adamantly surprised when he saw the same grey-haired teen standing at his side with his arms folded. Quickly swinging his head back, the mercenary saw that there were – in fact – two of them. ‘It’s pretty cool, I know, but I already tried it on the guards.’ This time, it was the real of the two that spoke as his copy faded into light.

‘It’ll probably come in handy on our way out.’ Drake stated, as his mind wandered over the ways a Semblance like that could help.

‘Probably will, but it still doesn’t solve the problem that we’re locked in here with no way out!’ he was on the verge of yelling at this point when the sound of crumpling metal caused the two to turn their attention to the door to the cell.

While they had been arguing, it seemed that Wolf had finally gotten up from its docile position in the corner and was now bending the metal of the door with its large claws, tearing through them gradually before pulling the door off its hinges with one hard tug.

The door clattered to the floor just before an alarm began blaring and they could hear several people outside the cell begin to shout orders. ‘Well that solves that.’ The grey-haired teen thought out loud before extending his open hand. ‘I’m Nathan, Nathan Grey.’

‘Drake.’ The mercenary replied before breaking off into a sprint out the open door, leaving Nathan hanging as he growled under his breath and followed his two cellmates out.

The corridor outside the cell was wide enough for about three people to walk side-by-side and was currently being bathed in a flashing red light as the sirens continued to blare. Cells lined the walls of the corridor for its entire stretch until they reached a short flight of stairs leading out on either side.

Already, there were guards drawing their weapons and taking up positions in the corridor outside their cell, but Wolf quickly descended on them and began knocking them out and killing them when convenient. Its quick form made it hard to hit and the strength it packed behind every attack always seemed more than the guards could handle. It only took a single punch or slash from its claws to tear through their armour and throw them against the wall, knocking them out long enough for Wolf to deal a fatal blow if he wasn’t distracted taking on another guard.

As Drake watched the display, he and Nathan quickly moved to grab a weapon each off the fallen guards, Drake having to wrestle a pistol off a guard that was still mostly conscious.

The two teens both raised their weapons instinctively in the direction of the Wolf creature, trying to get a clear shot at the guards it was fighting, before Nathan shot a glance at Drake. ‘Should we help it?’

Before the mercenary was able to voice a response, the sound of heavy boots from behind them drew their attention to four other prison guards coming down a second entryway. The two immediately turned their attention to the guards and began firing at vulnerable spots in their armour. The guards responded immediately; the two at the front dropping to their knees and deploying foldable shields as the others behind them began firing back with tasers.

Twisting out of the way to dodge two shots, Drake quickly held out his free hand to create a wall of Aura in front of him. ‘Get behind me!’ he shouted at the grey-haired illusionist. Nathan responded instantly, narrowly avoiding an electric round just before he got behind the Ward.

‘So, murderous Grimm at our backs and guards with orders to shoot-to-kill to our front.’ Nathan stated in an overly sarcastic tone. ‘Hope this is part of your plan.’

‘The plan is to get to our weapons and get the Hell out of here!’ Drake shouted back, not caring about his tone as all his concentration went into maintaining the Ward. ‘Wherever they might be.’

‘I know where they are!’ Nathan declared, causing Drake to shoot him a curious glance. ‘I memorised the layout of the prison off this wall-map I saw.’ He elaborated. ‘You get me out of here alive, and I’ll get you to the weapons.’

A burst of fire broke against the mercenary’s shield, causing a couple cracks to form along it. ‘I won’t be able to hold this up forever, so I need you to take care of them – fast!’

‘Or, we could that way.’ Nathan offered while thumbing over his shoulder. When Drake looked to where he was pointing, he saw that Wolf had successfully incapacitated all the guards on his end and was now taking cover by pressing his body up against one of the walls. ‘The hallways are symmetrical, so we should be able to get to our weapons that way as well.’

Drake took a second to consider his options before a second crack along his Ward made up his mind for him. ‘Alright, go! I’ll cover you, but you need to-’

‘Get the door and cover you on your way down – I know!’ Nathan interrupted as he made a low sprint down the hall, careful to jump over the groaning guards in his way and passing by Wolf hesitantly before slamming into the door. He fiddled with the digital lock system for a few seconds before saying something to himself and firing at the lock with his gun. It seemed to do the trick as the doors slid apart and Nathan ducked around it for cover before he began firing back at the guards to Drake’s front, who had now levelled an assault rifle on top of the propped-up shield.

Seeing a split-second advantage open up as the rifleman had to cock his weapon, the mercenary wasted no time in ducking down and making a sprint straight for the doorway. As he passed the Grimm creature, it seemed to take some kind of signal and quickly followed behind Drake just as the rifle began spitting out bullets.

Wolf caught most of the bullet spray as the two passed through the doorway, which Nathan shut behind them just as they got through.

‘Alright, Grey. Where to next?’ Drake asked while checking how many shots he had left in the pistol he picked up.

‘Wait-wait, we’re not seriously bringing _it_ with us, are we?’ he asked while gesturing towards the Wolf creature, who snarled back in reply.

‘It’s intelligent – I don’t know how, but somehow it’s smarter than most Grimm.’ Drake thought out loud as he walked to face the creature. ‘Almost as smart as a Human from what I can tell.’ He said, now addressing Wolf directly as he levelled a steady stare at it. ‘You made a deal with me before, now I’m going to make one with you; they know we’ve broken out, so they’ll gun you down before you even realise it. We can help you get out of here, but I need your word that you won’t turn on us until we’re clear of danger.’

Wolf growled a couple more times before it rasped out a few words in a broken sentence. ‘You want the word…of a monster? You…value a monster’s…word?’

‘That thing can speak?!’

‘Desperate times call for desperate measures.’ Drake replied, ignoring Nathan’s shock entirely.

‘But…do I…value Human deal?’ it asked back.

‘That depends on whether you value your life.’ The mercenary countered, never breaking eye-contact with the beast.

It growled menacingly once more before replying properly. ‘I will help…escape, but…only escape.’

‘That’s all I’m asking.’ Drake then turned back to the grey-haired teen, quickly taking in the stark corridor they found themselves in. ‘Which way?’

Nathan gestured with a nod of his head down the only passage out the hallway. ‘This way – it’ll take us to the main intersecting hallways on this level of the prison.’

‘Lovely.’ Drake muttered as they went, passing through a pair of doors that took them down another corridor, left turn, right turn, before leading to the intersection that Nathan mentioned.

The corridors here were much wider than before – large enough for a car to pass through if the need should arise. ‘Just up ahead! Then we’ll make a right turn that’ll take us straight to their armoury.’

‘ _Their_ armoury?’ Drake asked. ‘I thought you said you knew where to go to find out weapons!’

‘Our weapons are in the armoury, you dunce.’ Nathan shot back. ‘I overheard the guard that took Silver Bloods off me say that he was taking them to the armoury.’

‘Fine, let’s just get there before-’ Just before Drake could finish, the door on the far side of the hallway opened and a squad of Judicators came through. Slowing to a stop in the middle of the intersection, Drake and Nathan turned their heads to one of the other equally wide doors down the four-way split, which revealed another host of guards while Wolf was growling down the third hallway, where even more guards were pouring out.

‘Crap.’ Nathan muttered under his breath as he levelled his pistol at the closest Judicator.

‘We need to divide and conquer.’ Drake stated analytically. ‘Grey, I want you to-’ before he was able to finish, however, Nathan and Wolf darted down two different hallways to intercept the Judicators. Breathing out a sigh of annoyance, Drake clenched his empty fist in preparation of having to summon another Ward as he began walking down the hallway left to him.

* * *

This was definitely not how Nathan planned his day to go, but it seemed to be going better than he expected.

Without much cover to work with, Nathan charged forward while firing his gun wildly, hoping to catch the Judicators in front of him by surprise. It had little effect on the disciplined fighters, however, and they returned fire while using their armour to protect themselves.

One lucky shot made contact with Nathan’s knee, causing him to stumble as his Aura flared with the shock of the stun round. As he tried to roll with the blow without stiffening up, the illusionist also created a light copy that continued his advance towards the guards in white.

This time, the trick worked and all the guards began focussing their fire on the illusion Nathan made, giving him the time to quickly pull the dart they had fired out of his knee and charge towards the closest Judicator.

Nathan had to quickly weigh up his options as the Judicators realised that their shots were passing right through the copy he made, and finally thought through a plan just as he slammed into the shield of the closest guard. Rolling along the shield, Nathan was able to go around the man’s guard and smack the base of the gun’s hilt into the side of his neck, stunning him long enough for the grey-haired teen to wrest the riot shield out of his hands and fire a shot into an exposed part of the man’s armour, grazing the edge of his hip.

The rest of the guards quickly took notice and turned their weapons on him, forcing Nathan to take cover behind the shield and create another copy to try and draw some of the fire. It did little to help, however, and the illusionist quickly found himself being pinned to the wall by another Judicator with a shield.

Fortunately, he still had enough room to move his arms, however, and quickly used the opportunity to first draw his gun and fire it into the exposed neck of the man pinning him to the wall, before ducking out of the way and leaving a copy where he stood.

It worked well enough thanks to the weight of the now-dead Judicator to hold up the shields long enough for Nathan to slip out, and gave him the opportunity to fire on the last guard with a gun.

As soon as the woman dropped to the ground, Nathan began backpedalling to avoid the strikes of the two remaining guards, a retractable baton in either hand. He made it as far back as the intersection before one of the guards caught up and tackled him to the ground.

He wasn’t on the ground for longer than a couple of seconds, however, as a roar echoed through the spacious hallways before the weight on top of him was removed. Rolling onto his back to put two shots in the foot of the last Judicator, Nathan saw the reason the Judicator that had pinned him was now on the ground and bleeding was because of Wolf.

The Grimm worked quickly to tear apart the man’s armour before sinking his claws deep into his chest, causing the dying man to let out a groan of pain and Nathan to turn his head away, afraid he might gag at the scene.

A few more seconds of meaty sounds passed before Nathan decided to get up. Looking around, all the guards seemed to have been either killed or incapacitated. Drake was picking a stun baton off a guard when Nathan caught sight of him, which prompted the illusionist to check the ammunition on his gun as the mercenary approached him. ‘Where to next?’

‘It’s that way.’ Nathan said, pointing down one of the hallways. ‘…I think.’

‘You think?’ Drake asked, while quirking an eyebrow.

Disoriented from the fighting, Nathan _may_ have lost track of which way was which, especially since all the hallways looked identical, but he could still probably take an educated guess, maybe. ‘Do you have a better idea of which way to go?’ Nathan countered.

The mercenary groaned in annoyance briefly before turning his head away as he replied. ‘Fine. Lead the way.’

Satisfied, Nathan was about to head down one of the corridors when he was distracted by the sound of a pained yelp. Turning around, the illusionist saw that the Wolf creature was sinking its fangs into the neck of one of the Judicator he shot earlier. The man was still twitching and jerking about as Wolf dealt the finishing blow, snapping the man’s neck with one swift twist.

‘I think I’m actually going to be sick.’ He thought out loud while trying to put the image out of his head as he continued walking down the corridor he was sure would lead them to the armoury.

Probably.


	10. Chapter 6: On Wings of Smoke

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The escape from their holding cell turns desperate as Drake, Wolf and Nathan search for their weapons - and a way out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mazon48: Hi y'all, today will be another action segment, more storytelling next chapter hopefully.
> 
> Song of the day: "Everybody wants to rule the world"
> 
> A/N: The author's note you see above is from the original writer for this chapter. I thought I'd add it here since I'm such a sentimentalist (as you can/have and will see). My personal note to you readers will be at the bottom of this, so please enjoy the chapter and sorry it took so long.

‘Armoury…armoury…armoury…’ Nathan mused as they moved at a quick pace down the grey corridors of the prison, followed by the sounds of irregular gunfire patterns wherever they went.

‘Do you actually know where that is?’ Drake snapped just as they passed by another stairway with guards on the other end ready to shoot them. Nathan and him quickly doubled back as a spray of bullets came down the stairs and hid around the entryway.

‘It’s in the rough general vicinity – yes.’ Nathan reaffirmed. ‘It’d be a lot nicer if they had signs to point things out though, or if we had a compass.’

‘Well we don’t have either.’ Drake grumbled just as a tear gas grenade came tumbling down the stairs. As soon as it began hissing out gas, Drake knew they had to move – even if they were going nowhere. ‘Alright – you said it’s just down the corridor, right?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Ok, screw it.’ Drake growled while forming a Ward in his right hand to protect him as he ran by the exposed staircase, taking a few shots as he made his way down the grey hallways while trying not to breathe too much.

Nathan followed as the guards stopped firing to reload, although he had already inhaled a large dose of the chemicals in the air and had trouble running in a straight line for a few seconds as he choked on his own tears. Drake didn’t wait for him as he made his way down the corridor before slowing to a stop in front of an automatic door, locked by a card scanner.

Sensing that this might just be the armoury, Drake activated the stun baton he had picked up and jabbed it at the scanner, hoping it would fry the system and unlock the door. Barely a second passed, however, before the door suddenly slid open to reveal two armed guards on the other side.

Reflexively, Drake jabbed out at the closest guard with the baton, shocking him and throwing him back as the second guard took aim. The man was only able to get off a single shot – which missed Drake by a large margin – as the Wolf creature threw out what looked like a quill that struck the guard in the chestpiece, throwing him to the ground and dropping his gun.

Drake had forgotten that the creature had been bringing up their rear for a while now, mainly because it diverged its path down another hallway about two corridors back. _Something to keep in mind, I guess._ He thought to himself while nodding to the half-Grimm in thanks. _Can’t let this thing get the drop on us._

Walking over the stunned guard, the mercenary quickly crouched over the guard that had been shot by Wolf in order to deliver a quick blow to his temple, knocking the man unconscious as he moved his body against the wall of the room they had entered before taking a quick look around.

The first thing Drake took note of was that there were – thankfully – no other guards in here. The second was that his hunch had been valid; the room was most likely the armoury on this side of the prison, if not the main armoury in the prison complex. In the middle and along the far wall were racks with all types of weapons hanging off from them, along with personal lockers along one of the walls, but Drake didn’t bother with them.

As he approached one of the racks lined with rifles to take one, his hand stopped halfway as he noticed a random assortment of weapons and field equipment arranged along a set of shelves against the wall. Among them were his halberd, his scatterguns and his bandolier – stripped of its throwing kunai, unfortunately.

Picking it up and hefting its weight to make sure it was the real thing, Drake quickly secured it to the sling on his outfit just as Nathan came in, coughing out the last of the tear gas-induced asthma.

‘Guess you were right.’ Drake stated in mock-praise as he attached the rest of his weapons and bandolier to his body.

‘Told you it was here.’ Nathan quipped while approaching the shelves to grab his handguns, a few tears still leaking out of his eyes.

‘Grab whatever you need and head to the exit – if you can find us a ride out of here, take it.” Drake continued in a commanding tone as he reloaded his weapons and stuffed his pouches with handfuls of the spare Dust lying around.

‘All I need are my two baby girls here.’ Nathan replied as he grabbed a few spare pistol magazines off the racks and shoved them in his belt.

As Drake made sure that everything wouldn’t fall off when he started running – or fighting, a glint of metal caught his peripheral field of vision. Turning to focus on it, he saw his mask was among the confiscated pieces of armour arranged on the shelf and did not hesitate to take it.

He had to reactivate and sync up the implants on his neck with the mask, but otherwise went through the familiar motions of putting it on as the metal clasps hidden beneath his hood sprung up to hold it in place.

The mercenary subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief once it was on, grateful for the odd feeling of protection that the mask gave him as he pulled his hood up to complete his persona. Now, he wasn’t Drake anymore.

‘The enemy approaches.’ Wolf announced from near the entrance to the armoury just as Sabre loaded the last round into the Nightingale.

With the weapon in his hands, Sabre made his way back to the entrance and poked his head out of the doorway, immediately noticing guards coming down from either side. ‘Nathan, take the left – I’ll take the right.’ He ordered after taking a step back inside to hold his halberd in its ready position.

‘Sure.’ Nathan replied while taking up his position on the other side of the doorway, guns in hand.

Sabre counted down on his fingers for the grey-haired teen to see before they both simultaneously popped out of cover and fired down the corridor. Each round the mercenary fired met their mark as he shot down three guards on his side in quick succession while Nathan took down four on his end of the corridor.

‘Let’s move before more guards show up.’ Sabre stated as he advanced from out of cover and doubled back to the staircase they passed on the way here. ‘Or something worse.’

‘I guess we’ll stay close to you, then.’ Nathan breathed out as he kept pace with the mercenary, looking over his shoulder every few seconds to check that the creature didn’t look like it was about to kill him. ‘Do you even know where the exit is?’

‘I was hoping to ask you that.’ Sabre replied after rounding the corner and coming face-to-face with another guard, quickly using his halberd to get under his guard, trip him out from under his legs and deliver a sharp blow to the back of his head with the blunt end of the Nightingale.

‘Alright, I’ll admit, when I said I memorised the layout of the prison, I was actually only focussing on where the armoury was.’ Nathan confessed, somewhat embarrassed to have to admit to his failing.

‘Of course you did.’ The mercenary sighed as he made his way up the stairs, only to stop halfway when he saw a silhouette appear the top of the stairs. Even with the dim stairway lighting, Sabre could still make out the key details of the figure; his trenchcoat, his top-hat, and the axe in his hands.

‘Where do you think you’re going?’ he asked as his casual, relaxed posture subtly shifted into a more defensive stance. Without replying, Sabre quickly lowered himself into a ready position to fight. Before either could move to attack, however, two small fireballs streaked from behind the mercenary and impacted the roof of the stairway in front of the Huntsman, creating an explosion that caused the roof to partially collapse in front of him.

When Sabre turned around to stare angrily at Nathan – who was still holding his pistols in their firing position, the grey-haired trickster simply shrugged before pocketing his weapons. ‘Let’s find another way out of here.’

Gritting his teeth behind his mask, Sabre hefted his weapon before following behind Nathan this time.

* * *

When the entrance to the staircase collapsed into a pile of rubble, Abraham was far away enough that he wasn’t affected by the falling concrete as it effectively blocked his path. At the sound of footsteps approaching, the blonde turned around to see a squad of Judicators – likely backup to respond to the prison’s emergency alarm – arrive and slow to a stop in front of him. ‘They’re trying to get out – block off all the exits.’ He commanded.

Instead of moving out like he expected them to, the Judicators stood, stunned by his words as they looked at one another before one of them spoke up. ‘We don’t take orders from Huntsmen, let alone children.’ She stated defiantly.

‘There are three very dangerous inmates on the lose right now,’ Abraham reasoned.

‘We are well aware of the situation-’

‘So are you going to argue with me or do something about it?’ the blonde countered before a daunting voice barked over both Abraham and the Judicators.

‘Enough!’ the tone of the voice was sharp and snapping – like a whip – and made everyone stand at attention as the prison warden walked down the corridor towards them, followed closely behind by Professor Ozpin. ‘This is my prison; the only person giving orders around here will be me.’ After letting a couple seconds pass to let the order sink in, the warden continued with directing the Judicators. ‘They’re going to try to steal a fast ride out of here, so lock down all the on-site vehicle depots and ground the airships.’

As the Judicators sprinted down the hallway to do as they were told, Abraham was about to rush to follow them before a hand caught him on his shoulder and held him in place. ‘Abraham, why don’t the two of us go make sure that none of the airships parked are going anywhere?’ Ozpin asked, though the blonde knew well enough from his tone that while it was a request, it wasn’t one that Abraham would find in _his_ best interest to deny.

‘Yes, sir.’ Abraham reluctantly agreed as Ozpin steered him down the corridor – going in the opposite direction of the Judicators. Once they had put some distance between themselves and the warden, who was still inspecting the collapsed stairway, Abraham spoke up without restraint. ‘The warden isn’t happy that I broke out of the interrogation room, is she?’

‘I wouldn’t put it that way.’ Ozpin replied diplomatically. ‘However, we’ll need to have a talk about tactfulness when we get back to Beacon.’

* * *

As Drake and the Wolf creature fought further down a wide corridor, Nathan brought up the rear by providing supporting fire, shooting any guards that tried to flank them and by shooting out any security cameras he saw.

It wasn’t long before they found that the end of the corridor led out into an open courtyard, separated a wire fence that boxed in the doorway they had just come through. It was out here that Nathan realised that the alarm blaring from the prison could also be heard outside, likely letting everyone within a kilometre of the building know that there was a prison break going on. Looking out across the open ground of the prison compound, Nathan thought he saw what looked like an air-pad, if the airship docked on it was any indication.

The only problem was that the only way out of the fencing was through a locked door.

‘Perhaps we could find a way to scale the fence.’ The grey-haired teen suggested while reloading his guns. He was about to say something else when the sound of tearing metal drew his attention to Wolf, who had pounced on the fence and pulled apart the fencing like it was made of string. ‘Or we could do that.’ He muttered to himself as he followed after Drake, who made a beeline for the airship.

‘Everyone to the airship!’ Drake shouted over the sound of the blaring alarm, to which Nathan had the urge to make a witty comeback about pointing out the obvious.

Instead, Nathan aimed one of his guns at the tall wooden post just a few metres away, atop which a loud-speaker was blaring away. His single shot broke the speaker into pieces, effectively silencing it. ‘I hate that sound.’ He thought out loud while refocussing his attention on the path in front of him.

‘They’re taking off!’ the mercenary yelled just as Nathan noticed several jeeps drive out from around the compound and speed off towards them, still easily another couple hundred metres from them.

‘Uh, I think that’s not our main problem right now!’ Nathan yelled as panic set in with the realisation that their escape plan was rapidly falling apart. From this distance, even he could see the two mechanics quickly finishing up their external repairs on the vehicle before rushing up its ramp while the engines powered up.

_We’re not going to make it._ He thought as Wolf broke out into a full-on four-legged sprint, speeding up tremendously, but still not crossing the distance fast enough before the grey-haired teen knew the ship would be airborne and out of range.

As luck would have it, however, the two engineers that had just clambered inside the airship were suddenly thrown out, along with the airship’s pilot. Wolf was the first to reach the airship, quickly descending on the three men to finish them off as Drake slowed to a trot as he rounded the ramp to the ship’s interior.

When he took a few steps up the ramp, he stopped, seeming to have run into someone before a voice – a girl’s voice – spoke with a bit of flip in her tone. ‘Took you long enough to get out of there.’

‘Is the airship secured?’ Drake asked back immediately as he reached the top of the ramp.

‘Yep, the pilot left his keys in the starter, so we don’t have to worry about that.’

‘Ok, we’re also taking on two more passengers, so don’t shoot them.’

‘Passengers? Why?’

‘I had to make a deal.’ Drake stated just as Nathan made it to the bottom of the ramp, immediately spotting a beauty with platinum-blonde hair and a bow in her hands at the top of the ramp. She looked his way and Nathan was immediately transfixed by her silver eyes.

Putting on his best smile, he sauntered up the ramp while holstering his weapons. ‘Hello there, little lady.’ He purred, using one of the lines he was all too familiar with. ‘What’s a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?’

He expected her to swoon for him right there; immediately fall for his irresistible charm or, at the very least, give off a bashful giggle. Instead, all he got was an eye-roll as she made her way to the cockpit. ‘Flattered.’ She replied in a flat tone that clearly conveyed her disinterest.

Too stunned by the sudden, unexpected rejection, Nathan stood where he was for few seconds without moving an inch, frozen as his eyes blinked rapidly while he processed what had just occurred. After about six seconds, his legs carried him to the cockpit as he straightened out his back and said to himself, ‘She’ll come around.’

When the grey-haired teen crossed the threshold into the cockpit, he found Drake sitting in the pilot’s seat while the girl leaned over the headrest to look out the front view window. ‘Do you even know how to fly one of these things?’ Nathan asked with a slight hint of worry in his voice.

‘What does it look like?’ Drake asked rhetorically as he pressed and flicked unfamiliar buttons and switches on and off to figure out what they did.

‘He’s flown, like, two or three times before.’ The girl said in his defence, ‘A little rough, I’ll admit, but he does always manage to stick the landing.’

‘Not helping, Nicole.’ Drake commented while his eyes never left the controls in front of him. _So that’s her name, huh?_ Nathan thought to himself as he kept eyeing Nicole. ‘Grey, go make sure the ramp’s closed for take-off.’

Nathan made his way out the cockpit without giving a reply, crossing the passenger and cargo compartment of the airship as he arrived at the edge of the open ramp. The roar of the engines had definitely picked up, hinting that it was ready to take flight if given the final push. First, however, Nathan had to figure out which button on the side of the wall closed the ramp.

Eventually, his eyes landed on a pair of buttons with arrow symbols on them and made the obvious assumption as to their function. Peeking out from the opening, Nathan saw that Wolf had yet to enter, throwing black shards at unseen targets just out of his line of sight. ‘Hey freak, we’re going, so you can stand out there or come with us!’ the trickster shouted over the sound of the engines.

Fortunately – or unfortunately, the creature had heard him just as he pressed the button to manually raise the ramp shut and climbed in just as the ramp was halfway closed.

_Oh, great. It decided to stick with us._ Nathan thought as he went back up to the cockpit. ‘Hey, Drake. The ramp’s shut – let’s get out of here!’

‘Alright everyone, hang on to something!’ Drake warned as the airship suddenly lurched up just as Nathan grabbed hold of one of the overhead handlebars off to the side. To keep himself steady, Wolf crouched down and dug his claws into the floor of the airship; his dark cloak and bone-white armour making him look like some kind of dark, armoured feral dog – if it weren’t for his humanoid body shape.

Taking cautious steps, Nathan made his way over to one of the windows on his side of the airship and peered out as the ground gradually got further and further away. As the airship turned slightly in its ascent, the grey-haired teen caught sight of a squad of Judicators that had stepped out of a jeep and were firing on the airship.

At this distance, however, their weapons were ineffective and did little more than scratch the hull. _We made it. We actually made it! I’m home free!_ Nathan thought triumphantly as the grin on his face grew with each passing second that the airship took to get further away from the prison.

His excitement was quickly put on hold, however, as he noticed two figures that stood out among the armoured special forces arrive at the scene. At first, Nathan was confused as to who they were, but quickly recognised one of them as the Huntsman they had encountered in the prison.

For a second, the grey-haired teen considered informing Drake about what he saw, but dismissed it a second later. ‘Eh, what can they do to us from that far away?’

* * *

‘Sergeant, what happened?’ Ozpin asked the Judicator with the yellow shoulder-plates, which indicated his rank as the squad’s sergeant and leader, as he and Abraham walked out onto the now-empty air-pad.

‘Sir,’ the Judicator first snapped to attention before speaking again. ‘The escaped prisoners have commandeered that airship and killed its crew.’ he turned to look at the airship as it got higher and higher, not yet having blasted off for some reason. ‘They’re out of our effective weapon range, but we called for backup.’

‘They’re out of your weapons’ range, sergeant.’ Abraham repeated as he took in how high the airship was off the ground before acting on instinct. ‘Not mine.’

‘Abraham…’ Ozpin said in a tone that told him that he would not get another warning if he had something reckless in mind.

‘Don’t worry, sir. I know what I’m doing.’ _I hope,_ he thought to himself before pointing to one of the Judicators. ‘You!’ he took a couple long strides before reaching her side. ‘That’s an arm-shield you’ve got on, right?’ he asked, pointing at the device the woman had attached to her left wrist.

‘Yes?’ she replied in an uncertain tone.

‘Ok, I’m going to need you to give me a boost.’ Abraham explained before doubling back a few metres.

‘A wha-’

‘There’s no time – they’ll be too far out in a couple of seconds!’ Abraham yelled back to cut her off before lowering himself into a sprinting stance. ‘On my mark!’

The Judicator seemed to finally realise what the dirty-blonde’s plan was, and unfolded her round shield with the push of a button a second before he started running. His Semblance flooded his whole body with Aura as he made his approach, powering his steps to run faster and further than normal. Abraham also made sure to count his steps on his approach to make sure that he didn’t slow down or trip up on his run.

When he finally got within half a metre of the Judicator, the blonde leapt up onto her shield before lowering himself to jump up like a coiled spring as the Judicator gave him an extra boost.

Fuelled by his Aura, Abraham launched himself nearly sixteen metres into the air, not even close to reaching the airship, but high enough that he was able to channel his Aura into his arms, strengthening them with his Semblance as he threw Nighwither with all his might at one of the craft’s wings.

When his weapon smacked into the wing of the airship and severed a fuel line, causing the wing and engine to catch fire, Abraham let out an exhilarated cheer before noticing that he was now plummeting towards the ground. The blonde swallowed hard as he began flailing his arms to try and slow his descent, but was able to break his fall with a roll as he watched the ship begin to dip to one side and lose altitude.

He turned back to the squad of Judicators who stood and watch as the aircraft spun itself to the ground before growling in frustration. ‘Well don’t just stand there, get a squad on that airship – now! We can’t lose them!’

At his demand, the Judicators snapped into action and began jogging towards the crash site. He was about to take off after them, but hesitated as he noticed Ozpin’s disapproving look. Holding eye-contact with the older man for a few seconds, he did not move until Ozpin let out a small sigh and nodded his head once, giving his approval for Abraham to go after the criminals.

_I suppose I did something wrong, again._ Abraham thought to himself as he took off at a sprint. _Why can't he just see that this is what I'm meant for and just let me handle things my way?_

* * *

‘What the fudge just hit us?’ Nicole exclaimed rather than asked as the airship rapidly began to lose its altitude as Sabre did his best to take it down in a controlled fall – something he has never had to do before.

‘An axe, believe it or not!’ Nathan replied as he staggered into the cockpit with the Wolf creature behind him.

‘You should be strapped in, not-’ Nicole began, but stopped herself when she had to do a double-take after seeing Wolf. ‘What the heck is that thing?’

‘Our second passenger, it helped us escape.’ The dark-haired mercenary stated without tearing his attention away from the ship’s instruments, not so much looking where they were going to land as he was trying to make sure they _did_ land.

‘So It’s with us, then?’ she asked for verification.

‘For now,’ Sabre muttered through gritted teeth as he realised that there was nothing that could be done to correct the craft’s course or take it back up with the damage that had been done. ‘Everyone brace yourselves, we’re about to crash!’ he warned the others. Nicole was the first to react to his warning as she strapped herself into the co-pilot’s seat.

Glancing over his shoulder quickly, the mercenary saw that Nathan had stumbled back into the passenger’s compartment to find safety, while Wolf merely dug his claws into the metal airship and braced itself against the floor.

‘Please tell me I didn’t come all this way to die right after busting you out of prison!’ the platinum-blonde’s voice was frantic as she held onto the belts strapped across her body for dear life.

The raven-haired teen offered no response as he did what little he could before bracing himself for the impending crash, which came three seconds later as the airship hit the ground. Thanks to his last second adjustments, Sabre had managed to make sure the airship landed on its belly instead of nose-diving into the concrete road, though the shock of the landing was still enough that it jostled the mercenary hard enough for him to temporarily black out.

When he came to again, he found that the airship had grounded itself in the middle of a road, judging by the view he got from out of the cockpit’s cracked windscreen. Looking to his left, he saw that Nicole was both awake and struggling to get out of her safety straps, which had been damaged in the crash.

Unfastening the belts around himself, he quickly drew one of his Ursa’s Claws and used its blade attachment to cut one of the main straps holding the archer down, allowing her to finish unfastening herself.

The two took a few deep breaths to calm themselves down from the adrenaline rush of crashing an airship before Nicole spoke up. ‘What now, boss?’

‘We’re close enough to the downtown area to disappear if we make a run for it.’ Sabre thought out loud as he staggered out of his seat. ‘Don’t wait for me, go!’ he told her while standing in the doorway to the cockpit, waiting for Nicole to pass through it first.

After the blonde was out of the cockpit, Sabre turned his attention to the dark mass of Grimm hides and tattered cloaks that had been thrown into one of the walls during the crash. When he made a move to approach it, Wolf suddenly flinched back before staggering to its feet, bracing itself against the wall as it did. When it turned its pale head to him, it gave a low, animalistic growl before resting its back against the wall to face the mercenary with its claws drawn defensively.

‘Consider our deal fulfilled.’ Sabre told the creature before leaving it to nurse any wounds it had suffered.

Crawling into the passenger and storage compartment of the airship, Sabre found that, among the items that had been thrashed about in the crash, was Nathan; who looked like he hadn’t had enough time to strap in as he let out a pained groan, his side slumped against one of the walls.

‘Can you still walk?’ Sabre asked as he slowed to a stop in front of the trickster, who peered up at him with one open eye.

‘If I say no, will you carry me?’ he croaked out without shifting his position – which looked rather painful.

 ‘I’m pretty sure the Judicators wouldn’t mind carrying you out in a few seconds.’ The mercenary replied as Nathan let out a groan as he twisted into a resting position before pushing himself up.

‘Didn’t hurt to ask.’ He quipped while rolling his shoulder with a grimace. ‘I think I might’ve dislocated something.’

Sabre wasn’t listening anymore as he made his way out the bay door of the airship, stumbling out as his foot caught a piece of dented metal and nearly falling face-first into the torn-up pavement.

When he looked around, Sabre noticed that the city block they had crashed into was still occupied by civilians, many of them stopping to stare at the crashed airship. Immediately after he took note of this, the mercenary noticed his companion taking cover behind a car that had screeched to a halt in the middle of the road – if the tire marks on the ground were any indication. ‘We got a problem!’ she called out as she waved him over.

Sabre was about to ask what she was talking about, but his words died in his throat as the sound of another airship’s engines roared overhead before slowing down and turning to face them. Without warning, the machinegun built into the nose of the airship began firing a tight stream of bullets towards him, which Sabre managed to block while seeking cover with his Ward.

One of the airship’s wings had been torn off in the crash and was now embedded into the pavement by its side. Its width was high enough that when Sabre ducked down behind it, no part of his body was exposed as the machinegun fire suddenly stopped.

After waiting a few seconds, he took a chance and peeked out from over the top of his cover, realising that while the airship had stopped firing at him, it had also lowered itself to a hover just a metre above the ground for soldiers to jump out and form a line down the road. At the same time, a pair of light transport cars screeched to a stop on their right, letting another six Judicators – including the two Huntsmen – jump out and take position against them.

‘This _really_ isn’t looking good.’ Nicole stressed her words while drawing an arrow from her quiver and holding it against her bowstring, waiting for his word to attack or flee.

Sabre was about to respond with something to calm her down, but was interrupted again when several of the soldiers opened fire. The mercenary only realised a second later that they were not firing at him or the archer, but at Nathan – who had carelessly stumbled out of the airship and drew their attention.

It was only when several of the shots that should have hit the teen passed through him that Sabre realised Nathan was smarter than he seemed. A second Nathan then dashed out of the airship to join him as the soldiers were too busy on the first one to switch their focus to the second Nathan in time.

‘So what now, genius?’ Nathan asked, having drawn his twin handguns after taking a second to catch his breath.

‘We wait until they close in then strike out in whichever direction we see an opening.’ Sabre responded as he peeked out over the top of his cover to take a few wild shots with his halberd-rifle at the encroaching soldiers.

‘Quite a plan, if you ignore the fact that we’re surrounded on all sides.’ The grey-haired teen replied in a panicked, breathy tone.

Sabre was about to reply with a comeback when he realised something from what Nathan said. ‘Not all sides.’ He realised, looking to his right to see that the path to the left of the crashed airship was still clear of armed men trying to shoot them. ‘Run to your right – we still have a chance to escape.’

No sooner had he said this did Wolf suddenly lunge out of the airship’s open ramp straight towards the line of soldiers to his front. Immediately drawing the fire of all the soldiers and Judicators, Sabre took the opportunity and sprinted out of cover, signalling for Nicole to follow him.

Neither of them made it very far before the Huntsman with the woodsman’s axe from before leapt over their heads and twisted to block their way. ‘Not this time!’ the Huntsman declared confidently while extending his axe in one hand.

Using the teen’s overconfidence against him, Sabre used the head of his halberd to bat the Huntsman’s weapon out of the way and leave him vulnerable to attack. When the bounty hunter next tried to thrust his Nightingale at the blonde’s chest, however, the Huntsman raised his free hand to block the strike with his wrist, which Sabre found to be covered by a vambrace.

As the blonde flashed him a cocky smirk, Sabre felt a brief moment of satisfaction when he cocked the bolt on the halberd-rifle before firing, causing the blonde’s smirk to disappear immediately.

The shot sent the Huntsman stumbling to the ground as he caught the full force of the attack, leaving him wide open for Nicole to follow up with a shot from her bow. Before she had a chance to draw the bowstring halfway, however, a bullet smacked into bow, right above where the grip was, and caused the platinum-blonde to drop her weapon. A second bullet followed immediately after, knocking the Nightingale out of Sabre’s grip – disarming them both.

Shocked – and admittedly somewhat impressed – by the feat, the two turned to see who had fired the shot, Sabre extending his hand in case he needed to quickly put up a shield to protect them. Roughly fourteen metres from them across the crash site stood their shooter; a young Judicator with a helmet that did not cover her fair face and a semi-automatic rifle in her hands.

She raised her weapon to fire again, but just before she could pull the trigger Wolf tackled her to the ground, one claw firmly gripped around one of her arms while the other tried to crush her head as she struggled against him.

This turned the full attention of the Judicators on the Grimm creature, leaving the soldiers free to close in on Sabre and his archer. Thinking on his feet, the bounty hunter quickly created another Ward to block the spray of bullets the soldiers sent their way as his head whipped around to Nicole. 'Get your bow, I’ll cover you!’

Nicole sprang into action immediately, but let out a yelp and dropped to the floor when an axe-blade nearly took off her head. Sabre also had to move out of the way as the blonde Huntsman took several more swings at him with his halberd, quickly tiring out as he had to dodge the Huntsman’s axe while also keeping up his shield.

Trying to outsmart the blonde, Sabre reached out to catch the shaft of the axe when the Huntsman tried to take another swing at him. His plan had been to pull the weapon out of his grip before the blonde realised what he was doing, but things quickly turned against him when he realised the teen had an iron-grip on the weapon.

The mercenary’s hesitation worked against him as he was suddenly flung in an arch when the Huntsman yanked back on his weapon, smacking him against the ground and knocking out the rest of his Aura.

With the wind knocked out of him, Sabre could do little more than turn his head as he tried to catch his breath and silence the flaring pain in his back. He watched as Nathan fell when he was caught unaware by a shock grenade that knocked him unconscious with a jolt of electricity. He turned his head the other way to watch Nicole as she dropped her bow after just having picked it up when three soldiers surrounded her, her arms stretched up in surrender.

As he came to terms with the fact that none of them were getting out of this, the last thing Sabre saw before taking a blow to the head was a Judicator tackling straight into Wolf.

* * *

The Human female Wolf had pinned under him was putting up a valiant struggle – her hazelnut-brown eyes burning with a defiant fire, but Wolf was through with the tussle and bit into her collar as she gave off a scream of pain. His kill was short-lived when a blow to his shoulder forced him off his prey so that he could raise his arms to protect him from the shots that followed.

Turning to assess his situation, Wolf found himself flanked on all sides by four Humans in identical sets of armour. Each had stowed away their firearms in exchange of club-like weapons that sparked with lightning, daring Wolf to take them on. Two of them jabbed at the air in front of him to force the half-Grimm backwards and away from their downed comrade, which they flanked to protect.

_They think they have me trapped._ Wolf thought as he played the part of an animal. _Like a caged beast._ While shielding himself with his right arm, the half-Grimm subtly morphed his left claw into its Deathstalker stinger-form before striking out in a circle at the Humans. The stinger’s reach was just long enough to sweep the soldiers away before they could defend themselves, knocking them to the ground.

Wolf’s victory only lasted for a second, however, as his ears suddenly picked up a loud war-cry, followed by a bulky Human tackling into his side while wrapping their arms around his torso to try and throttle him to the ground.

The man’s plan failed as Wolf dug his feet into the ground – slowing their movements – before grabbing the man by his back and throwing him off. The warrior was resilient, however, and rolled to his feet the second he hit the ground – drawing his weapon a second later.

Growling in challenge and anger, Wolf charged straight at the man with the intent of tearing him to pieces. However, the man put up more of a fight than the half-Grimm expected; the Judicator matched most of Wolf’s strikes with his own while ducking and weaving under the ones too powerful for him to block.

Every two or three swings, the man would jab the end of his electric baton into Wolf’s side, wearing him down with each shock than surged through his body. The pain fuelled Wolf’s aggression and eventually he managed to land a powerful double-fisted uppercut that sent the man flying. Wolf wasted no time in pouncing on the Judicator as soon as he hit the ground, ready to finish this. However, when he landed on the man he also landed on a cyan field of energy that surrounded the man which threw the half-Grimm back.

Not expecting the sudden counterattack by the man’s Aura, Wolf landed poorly when he hit the ground, which put him at a disadvantage when the Judicators got back up and began electrocuting him, repeatedly.

After the second round of shocks Wolf found his limbs to be unresponsive as they seized up. By the third round of shocks, Wolf’s vision was going black as he felt his strength leave him, overwhelmed by the pain.

_This will not be my end,_ His consciousness was fading fast. _I will not fall to so simple a prey._ Any other thoughts soon left him as darkness filled his vision.

* * *

When Nathan came to, the first thing he felt was the aching soreness all over his body. Memories of the shock grenade came rushing back to him and when he tried to raise his hand to rub the ache in his shoulder, he found that they were bound behind his back. It was then that he also realised he was seated in a chair next to two others, who were also bound and had yet to regain consciousness.

A quick glance at his surroundings revealed that he, Drake and Nicole were seated in the centre of a circular office, facing the floor-to-ceiling windows that were too bright to see out of for the time being. As there wasn’t much to take in, Nathan’s eyes were then drawn to the silver-haired man and blonde woman standing in front of them, both bearing neutral expressions.

Upon recognising who the two figures were, it dawned on Nathan where they were likely being held just as Drake regained consciousness with a pained groan.

‘Ah, good, you’re awake.’ Ozpin said in a tone that was all too pleased with the way things had turned out.

Drake seemed to take a moment to register where they were before sighing, his head hanging in defeat. ‘So, what’ll it be? Life-sentence? Death penalty?’

‘Considering recent laws on attacks against the Kingdoms, all three of you are likely to face an execution, once we hand you over to the Vale authorities.’ Glynda read off a datapad in her hands.

The grey-haired teen let out a nervous chuckle at the mention of an execution. ‘Any chance we could convince you guys to just…forget this ever happened?’

‘Unfortunately, Mr Grey, I don’t see _any_ outcome in which we’ll be releasing you on accounts of multiple homicides _and_ crashing an airship in downtown Vale.’ The blonde woman snapped back, causing Nathan to wince at her venomous tone.

‘Hey, don’t look at me. That guy was the one flying the ship, I was just a passenger.’ Nathan tried to defend himself, ignoring the glare Drake and Nicole sent his way.

‘There is, however, an alternative,’ Ozpin spoke up as he began pacing in front of the three seated individuals. ‘-Should you be willing to accept the terms.’

‘There is?’ Glynda asked in both surprise and question, eyeing the older man carefully.

‘As of recently, Vale has become rather…shorthanded on experienced soldiers and warriors, while her enemies in the shadows have been growing in strength.’ Ozpin explained in a tone of voice that foretold a lecture. ‘Threats we thought to have been too weak to pose a serious risk or ones we had thought to be destroyed are massing again in secret. It’s times like this we – or I should say _I_ – need a task force that can operate surreptitiously.’

Nathan took a questioning glance at Drake before voicing the question on everyone’s mind. ‘And where does that leave us?’

‘I’d prefer if the members of this task force were expendable.’ Ozpin added, clarifying what their roles in his plan were.

‘You want us to fight for you to avoid the death sentence?’ Drake asked sceptically. ‘Sounds a lot like enslavement over death.’

‘Make no mistake, if you serve your purpose well, each of you stands a chance of earning back your freedom.’ Ozpin replied with a gentle smile. ‘Provided you survive the initiation.’

‘What initiation?’ Nicole asked.

‘Ozpin,’ Glynda said under her breath. ‘-I’m not sure about this.’

The headmaster held up his hand for silence from the woman as he continued. ‘If you should choose to accept this alternative agreement, you will be deployed into the Emerald Forest first thing in the morning along with the first-year students and will be made to complete the tasks given to them. Should you survive, you will be brought back to Beacon where we can…negotiate the terms of your indefinite lodging here, at the academy.’

Nathan remained quiet for a few seconds as he gave himself a moment to process the offer he had been given and his options, trying to play from different angles to see any alternatives. Eventually, it was Drake that broke the silence. ‘So that’s it: death or become an expendable soldier?’

‘Frankly, Mr Venari, I don’t think you’re in any position to negotiate for much better.’ Glynda shot back, to which the bounty hunter let out a long sigh before replying.

‘Alright,’ he stated. ‘I’ll do it.’

A second passed before Nicole spoke up as well. ‘Then I’m in too.’

‘Sure,’ Nathan added in with a sigh. ‘Why the hell not?’

‘Very well,’ Ozpin said, looking quite pleased with himself. ‘You will now be escorted to the ballroom to wait amongst the other first-year students.’ He said as three Judicators came up behind them and undid their restraints. ‘You will be under constant surveillance, and any attempts to escape, provoke violence or otherwise disturb the peace will be seen as an act of aggression, and you will be killed on the spot.’ He explained as Nathan got up to stretch out his stiff muscles and flex his sore wrists. ‘Your weapons and equipment have been confiscated, and will only be returned to you right before the initiation.’

As Nathan and the other two were escorted to the elevator that would take them down to the academy, the grey-haired teen looked over his shoulder to give Ozpin a thankful – yet still baffled – look. ‘Thanks, I guess.’

When he entered the elevator, followed by Drake, Nicole and the three guards, Nathan was left to wonder in silence how things had gone not at all as he had planned.

* * *

After taking a minute to figure out how she wanted to voice her concern, Glynda got Ozpin’s attention by clearing her throat before speaking. ‘Professor Ozpin, are you sure this is the best course of action?’

Ozpin paused for a few seconds before replying. ‘No, but you’ve seen the scout reports and our Huntsmen are too thinly spread. An expendable strike team might just be what we need to ease some of the pressure off the Hunters in the field.’ Glynda was about to say more, but was cut off by Ozpin. ‘You saw how well those three, and the Wolf creature, took down those Judicators and prison guards.’

‘That’s what worries me – that Grimm creature in particular.’ The blonde stressed her words as she spoke. ‘We can’t control It, much less the others! They’ll escape at the first chance they get!’

‘We’ll keep the Grimm under close surveillance, and I’ll be sure to have a word with  _him_ later tonight to see if he is up for a deal.’ Ozpin reassured. ‘As for the others, I suppose we’ll have to rely on faith that they do not disappoint.’

‘Why doesn’t that fill me with relief?’ she asked rhetorically.

‘Just to be sure, I’m also taking the precaution of ensuring someone we trust will be with them at every turn.’

‘I really wish you’d discuss these kinds of things with me _before_ you took the initiative to go through with them.’ The blonde witch muttered before speaking up to properly address the headmaster. ‘I hope it’s at least someone capable of handling them in case things turn…messy.’

‘Well, seeing as how he’s already handled both the bounty hunter and that Wolf creature just fine, I’m sure he’ll do fine.’

It took Glynda a couple seconds to realise who Ozpin was likely talking about before she narrowed her eyes in a leer. ‘Are you serious?’

‘He wanted to join the first-years this time for the initiation process, and we can’t deny him that right anymore since he turned seventeen.’ Ozpin reasoned, but Glynda was too antsy to acknowledge his reasoning, no matter how true it was.

‘You’re putting him on a team of criminals?! How is that fair for him?’ the blonde asked, at this point almost shouting. ‘I thought the agreement was that he would be treated _regularly_ , to _keep_ him from feeling different.’

‘But he is different!’ Ozpin snapped back in a gentle yet impatient tone. ‘I’ll admit, it’s not what I would have wanted for him either.’ His solemn tone of voice let Glynda know he meant what he said. ‘But he’s still the same boy that hasn’t broken out of his stubborn, proud attitude; he still has more to learn before he’s ready to be a _real_ Huntsman, and I have this nagging feeling that those three are right for him.’ The silver-haired man walked back to his desk to take a sip of his coffee before continuing. ‘Who knows? Perhaps they can learn a few lessons in humanity and kindness from him.’

With that, Glynda knew there was no changing his mind. _Well, he’s had worse ideas._ ‘He is not going to be happy about this.’

‘You leave him to me.’ Ozpin stated as he walked over to place a hand on Glynda’s shoulder. ‘I have a good feeling about this, I really do.’ His hand dropped as he continued on with his train of thought, going off on a tangent from their original discussion. ‘In the meantime, I’d like to know if we received any replies from the Judicators that helped with the capture of the Wolf creature.’

The witch was relieved to be able to focus on a new issue instead of lingering on something she didn’t know what was best for. ‘Out of the six, only two have replied – though one seems to be in serious medical care due to an injury during the fight. I’ll have to check on her later, but it’s likely she won’t be seeing much action for a few months.’

‘In any case, let them both know that the initiation is tomorrow, and that the able-bodied one is welcome to join the first-years.’

‘Of course, sir.’ _Two Judicators, three criminals and an intelligent Grimm-creature joining the ranks of the first-year Huntsman._ Glynda mused as she excused herself to go about her task. _This is certainly shaping up to be a very interesting year of schooling._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, yeah. This rewrite turned out to be a lot longer than I expected. I had hoped to keep things under the +6K word limit, but there were a lot of things I wasn't happy with how this chapter was originally written and had to get creative. There were a couple of times when I just wanted to split the thing into two chapters, but I REALLY didn't want to go through the trouble of reformatting the whole storyline for it.
> 
> Anyway, the chapters should flow more smoothly after this, and for those of you interested in my writing, I'm working on more projects now that I suddenly have more time on my hands.


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